


The Universe Was Wide Enough

by Artemis_Sherwood



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 02:05:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 38,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8471359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Sherwood/pseuds/Artemis_Sherwood
Summary: Diana Scott wakes up in an underwater base in her pajamas and ends up being hurtled across all of time and space. There's no way home to her universe, half her family doesn't even exist, and she has a special bond with the TARDIS that no one can understand. Not to mention a female Doctor and a Master willing to tear existence apart for her love. (All Female!Doctors/OFC/All Female!Masters; Whouffaldi/OFC)





	1. Under the Lake

**Author's Note:**

> A reimagining of my previous stories in the 'Once Upon Another Time' series, found in full on fanfiction. I stumbled across some beautiful fan art of gender/racebent Doctors on tumblr and knew immediately that I had to write a story about it. Basically, the Doctor and the Master are women (most of the time) and very unstraight women at that, Time Lords are genderfluid, Clara's bi, the Doctor and Di are polyamorous, and Di is the most pansexual person you will ever meet. She might even rival Jack and River.
> 
> https://thestoryofdianascott.tumblr.com/post/154208057449/a-belated-little-aesthetic-for-the-first-chapter

Shades of blue, gold, purple, and red all swirled around me like a silent hurricane of colors. Peeking through the colorful mist were tiny pinpricks of light - stars - and planets of a million different sizes, all of them whizzing past me. Confused, I looked around and realized that I was floating. The mist had formed some kind of vortex around me and I hovered right in the middle of it, my arms and legs mere feet from brushing against the edges. A bolt of lightning shot across the vortex, narrowly missing my face and then-

I stirred, my ears ringing with the echo of a loud, shuddering wheeze. I was on the floor. How did that happen? I started to rub my eyes, but ended up knocking my knuckles against my glasses. I took them off, cleaned them with the corner of my shirt, and then slipped them back on. When I looked up, I expected to see my bedroom wall. Instead, I saw an enormous monster hovering in front of me with its serpentine face spread wide to show its gleaming fangs. I screamed and scrambled backwards on my hands until I ran into something.

I looked over my shoulder to see an overturned metal chair with an orange, plastic seat. "What the-?" I looked back at the monster and sighed in relief when I realized that the monster was just a mural. It wasn't even real. But then I realized something else. I got to my feet and looked around in confusion.

Across the room, perpendicular to the mural, was an open doorway where two people skidded to a stop. One was a tall, thin woman with dark brown skin and short, silver hair shaved on the sides, like mine. A gold stud pierced her right nostril and she wore black trousers with a red lined coat. The second person was much shorter. She was pale and her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail. And she looked incredibly familiar.

" _Diana?_ " the two women exclaimed.

They both started towards me and I immediately backed away, stumbling over a chair leg and then bumping into a table. I suddenly recognized the younger woman as Clara Oswald. She and the older woman paused; they looked worriedly at me, then at each other.

"Diana?" the older woman asked with a Scottish accent. "What's wrong?"

My voice trembled when I spoke. "Where am I?"

"We don't know yet. We just got here," Clara said. "We heard you scream. What happened?"

I glanced hesitantly at the mural, but didn't allow my eyes to leave the two women for more than a second. The silver haired woman started towards me very slowly, but she stopped again when I backed away. She stared curiously at me and then a second later, her steel blue eyes widened. She stepped back and grabbed Clara's hand as she whispered something in her ear. Clara shook her head, looking between her companion and myself.

"Is this a dream?"

Clara smiled, but her eyes were sad. "Diana-"

"Yes!" the other woman interjected. "Yes, it's a dream."

I furrowed my brows. "Then where's the Doctor?" I questioned. The woman's half smile disappeared and her shoulders dropped. "You are Clara, aren't you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then where's the Doctor?"

Clara's wide, brown eyes locked on the semi wrinkled face of the woman at her side. She squeezed the woman's hand and smiled again. " _She's_ the Doctor," Clara answered.

The more I looked at the strange woman, the more it made sense. She wore the Doctor's iconic jacket and the golden ring he wore on his left hand. Her hair was much like his: curly and cut short, except for the shaved off parts on either side of her head. But she was a woman and her skin was much darker than his had ever been. _Then again, this wouldn't be the first time I've dreamt of a female Doctor,_ I reminded myself.

"You okay now?" Clara wondered.

"Um. Yeah," I said with a nod.

"Good." Clara dropped the woman's hand - the _Doctor_ \- and started across the room. On the left side of the mural, a knife was stuck in the wall. She flicked the handle and it twanged. "Doctor, look at this."

The Doctor looked around, her fidgeting hands clasped in front of her chest. "Well, Clara, looks like you got your wish," she sighed.

I followed the Doctor's example and turned to look at the rest of the room. We were in a cafeteria, but the tables were pushed into odd placements and several chairs had been overturned. Food had been haphazardly thrown across table tops and the floor, and some of the silverware seemed to have been thrown as well. Like the knife Clara had found, a handful of forks and other knives were stuck in other parts of the wall.

"Food fight?" Clara suggested.

"I think there was more to it than that. Whatever it was, it happened pretty recently." I looked back at the Doctor as she twirled her finger in the contents of a cup. "Seven or eight hours ago. No bodies, though."

 _Bodies?_ I brushed my hair out of my eyes, then froze as I noticed something different about the far wall. A chill ran up my spine as I spotted a fish swimming through the murky, dark teal water past the enormous windows. _Is that the ocean? Please don't be the ocean._

"Oh, yeah." I turned my back to the windows so I wouldn't see the endless mass of water that surrounded the building. Clara walked over to the Doctor with a grin. "You see, this is more like it." She raised her hand and wiggled her eyebrows at the Doctor, waiting for the Time Lord - _Lady_ \- to high five her. "Oh, come on. Don't leave me hanging."

The Doctor rolled her eyes and left the room through the same doorway she and Clara had entered through. With a resigned sigh, Clara dropped her hand and started after her. She looked back at me as she stepped through the doorway. "Come on," she urged before disappearing around the corner.

I glanced back at the windows and shivered at the sight, then hurried after the pair. Clara was waiting just outside the doorway and grabbed my hand. She pulled me down the corridor, around a few corners, and released me when she spotted the Doctor a few paces ahead of us. The Doctor looked back at us and smiled; she pointed down the corridor, where two men were kneeling in front of a wall.

"Look," she whispered. "Crew! See? I knew this place hadn't been abandoned." The Doctor glanced back at me, but her expression seemed to fall flat when I quickly looked away. She whispered something to Clara and then started down the corridor.

"Hey." Clara took my hand and laced her fingers with mine. Her fingers were thin and short, and the tips were cold against my skin. "Follow me."

Still several feet ahead of us, the Doctor cleared her throat. "Hello, sailors!" The two men stood and when they turned around, I felt my blood run cold. They were almost translucent and their eyes were nothing more than empty, gaping black holes. Clara tightened her fingers around my hand. "Right, I did not expect that. Hands up, who expected that."

The Doctor backed up, nearly stepping on my feet, but moved to the side at the last minute so she could stand beside me. She took my hand and I instinctively held it tighter. "Wait," she said as the men approached us. "Don't move. I don't think they're going to hurt us. I think that they're just curious."

One of the men stood as tall as the Doctor; he stared at her, lips moving soundlessly, as he tilted his head to the side as if he was inspecting her. The other man, a few inches shorter than the Doctor and still much taller than me, was staring at Clara. Suddenly, both men turned to look at me and leaned closer to my face.

"Are you sure?" Clara asked.

I could see the Doctor shrug from the corner of my eye. "Well, I mean, define sure." She tried to move her head and grab their attention, but the men were focused solely on me. "Look at you lovely chaps. What's happened to you, then?"

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, the men turned and walked away. I let out a breath; had I been holding it the entire time? The Doctor tugged on my hand and looked back at Clara and I, grinning excitedly. "Come on," she murmured.

Clara rubbed her thumb across the back of my hand several times in quick succession. "What are they?"

The Doctor peeked around the corner. "I haven't a clue. Isn't that exciting?"

I shook my head firmly. As the Doctor led us down another corridor, I could feel my hands begin to shake. Ghosts were cool, but not when they were eye-less, murderous, and under water. Based on my experiences with nightmares and my knowledge of the episode this dream seemed to be based upon, I knew that I needed to wake up soon before it got any worse. No dream of Clara and a lady Doctor was worth ghosts going on a killing spree.

The Doctor pulled Clara and I through another doorway, which entered into a large hangar. "Where did they go?" Clara asked, dropping my hand to go ahead of us. On our right was a large, futuristic looking ship with what looked like plane engines attached to the side. "What is it, some kind of submarine?"

The Doctor shook her head as she guided me to the very back of the ship. "No, it's alien," she said. The entire back end of the ship was exposed, revealing the pure white interior and minimalistic design.

Clara spun around on her toes and looked between the Doctor and I. I glanced up at the Time Lady, who wiggled her eyebrows and started for the stairs leading into the ship. Clara followed her with a grin and an excited hop in her step. There was a large, white rectangle in the center of the shallow room and nothing else. The Doctor ran her hand along the edge of the object, her skin seemingly darker against the surface.

 _The dream's only just starting_ , I told myself. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the sound of Clara's heels on the floor of the ship. _You've done this before, Diana. Just wake up. You can dream about pretty ladies another time when there aren't creepy ghosts involved._

Normally when I managed to force myself out of a bad dream, I could feel my head spinning as I woke up. But when I opened my eyes, I was still in the large hangar and there was no spinning sensation in my head. The Doctor was still a woman and she was still inspecting the ship with Clara.

I closed my eyes again. _Come on. Just wake up. I don't want to be stuck under God knows how much water with scary ass ghosts! Wake up-_

"Diana?" The Doctor's Scottish accent drew me out of my thoughts. She was standing at the top of the stairs with Clara beside her, both of them staring wide eyed at me. "Don't turn 'round."

Of course, I immediately turned around and gasped when I spotted the two ghosts standing just a few paces away. I backed away as quickly as I could without tripping, my eyes glued to the ghosts who stared silently at us as they continued to mouth words that neither of us could understand. A hand rested on my shoulder and I jumped, looking up to see the Doctor standing at my side.

"Don't panic," she whispered to me. She glanced down at me and her smile was somehow reassuring. "Take my hand." Her voice was low and serious. Once I wrapped my fingers around her hand, the Doctor looked back at the ghosts. "Hello there! Did you want to show us this? It's very nice."

The shorter ghost turned around and lifted an axe off of its hook on the wall. Clara inhaled sharply as she stood on the Doctor's other side, her arms waving nervously. "Okay, they now appear to be arming themselves."

The Doctor pushed me in the direction of a nearby exit. "Yes, I spotted that, too," she said as she urged me forward. The other ghost grabbed what looked like a harpoon gun and began to approach us. I felt my heart pound against my ribcage as the ghosts rounded on us. The sound of the axehead dragging along the stone floor made my ears ring. "Was it something Clara said? She does that. She once had an argument with Gandhi!"

The axe swung through the air and the Doctor yanked Clara out of the way just in time. We all stumbled backwards, the Doctor continuously looking over her shoulder at the nearby exit. The taller ghost aimed his harpoon gun at us and without hesitating, I ripped my hand from the Doctor's grasp and bolted for the exit. I could hear the Doctor calling my name, but I kept running and rounding corners to put as much distance between me and the ghosts as possible.

I stopped a minute later, breathing heavily as I leaned against the corridor wall. Clara and the Doctor caught up to me a few moments later. They pressed themselves against the wall on either side of me, the Doctor sparing a few quick glances around the doorway to see if the ghosts had followed us.

"Are they gone?" Clara whispered.

"Wait."

A hand appeared next to my head and I yelped I surprise as I stumbled to the other side of the corridor. Clara reached for my arm as she stepped away from the ghost casually walking through the metal wall. The Doctor grabbed Clara by the arm and pushed her to the side, out of the ghost's way. I turned to flee, but skidded to a halt when I saw the other ghost emerge from the floor past an intersection.

Clara tugged on my arm. "Run!" she ordered.

We all turned right, down one of the other corridors that met at the intersection. The corridor ended several paces away at a large metal door, which suddenly opened to reveal a group of people behind it.

"In here!" a woman yelled. "Quick!"

Clara reached the door first, the Doctor just behind her. The Time Lady pulled me through the doorway by my arm and the door immediately slammed shut. I bent over slightly as I tried to catch my breath, while my companions looked through the round window in the door at the ghosts. I leaned against the curved wall of the room and let my breath start to even out. "What are you?" the Doctor whispered.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?"

The man's voice cut through the tense silence and I jumped. The Doctor turned away from the window and looked curiously at the man for a moment. Then she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her psychic paper. "This is Clara, Diana, and I'm the Doctor," she said.

The occupants of the room were two women, both short and pale, and three men, two of which were dark skinned like the Doctor was. They all leaned forward to read the Doctor's psychic paper and one of the men exclaimed, "You're from UNIT!"

"Well, if that's what it says," the Doctor replied with a half smile.

The man with light blond hair gestured to himself and then to the man standing on his right. "I'm Pritchard, this is Bennett."

Before he could continue however, a short woman suddenly leapt in front of the Doctor and grabbed her hand. "O'Donnell!" she exclaimed as she excitedly shook her hand. "Are you _really_ the Doctor? I'm a huge fan!" She giggled and then, realizing that everyone was staring at her, cleared her throat and attempted a serious expression. "I mean, er, you know. Nice work."

The third man waved his hand at the Doctor, grabbing her attention. "Tim Lunn, I sign for Cass," he said.

"Tell me, what about those things out there?" the Doctor asked as she gestured behind her. "What are they? Why are they trying to kill us?"

"Well, they're- uh, they're ghosts," Bennett stammered.

The Doctor flashed him an incredulous expression. "They're not ghosts."

The woman who stood beside Lunn began rapidly moving her hands in sign language. Lunn started to translate, but the Doctor cut him off. "Thank you, but I actually don't need your help. I can speak sign." She turned to Cass and signed as she spoke. "Go ahead."

Cass looked startled for a moment, but then shook it off and began signing again. After just a few seconds, the Doctor shook her head. "No, no, actually, I can't," she sighed. "It's been deleted for semaphore. Someone get me a selection of flags."

"One of the ghosts is our previous commanding officer," Lunn translated. "The other, um, moley guy - we don't know what he is."

The Doctor looked out the window at the taller ghost, who looked more like a Who from Whoville than a mole. "He's from the planet Tivoli."

"See? I told you he was an alien. Didn't I say that?" Bennet asked as he began pacing around the room.

The Doctor hummed thoughtfully. "Weird thing is, they're not violent. They're too cowardly. They wouldn't say boo to a goose. They're more likely to give the goose their car keys and bank details. When did they first appear?"

"Did you see that spaceship in the hangar? Yeah, we found that on the lake bed and we'd just got it on board and one of the engines started up and then Moran got-." O'Donnell halted mid sentence and she visibly swallowed her tears. When she finished, her voice was soft and low. "Moran was killed."

Lunn began translating for Cass again. "Then they appeared and pretty much straight away started trying to kill us. So we grabbed what we could and we were looking for somewhere to hide, and that's when we realized the ghosts couldn't come in here."

"What is this place?" Clara wondered, wrapping her hand around the Doctor's elbow.

"It's a Faraday cage," she explained. "Completely impenetrable to radio waves and, apparently, whatever those things are out there." I looked around the small, circular room and noticed the metal slates attached the the walls, which were likely what made the Faraday cage impenetrable. "So, who's in charge now? I need to know who to ignore."

"That would be me. Er, her," Lunn corrected himself with a gesture to Cass.

The blond man spoke up again. "Actually, that would be me." He reached into his shirt pocket and handed a yellow and black business card with his name and title written on it to the Doctor. "I represent Vector Petroleum. We've obtained the mining rights to the oil."

"The oil?" Clara repeated. "What oil?"

"And where are we?" the Doctor added, flinging Pritchard's business card onto the floor.

Bennett readjusted his glasses. "This used to be a military training site. There was a dam overlooking it, but the dam burst and the valley was submerged."

"Then twenty years ago, we discovered a massive oil reservoir underneath it,"Pritchard said as he tucked the business card back into his pocket.

A low hum sounded in the cage and the lights suddenly brightened. A computerized voice began speaking from somewhere in the ceiling. "Good morning," said the vaguely pleasant voice. "Entering day mode."

O'Donnell smiled as Cass opened the door. "Okay, it's morning," the woman said with a sigh of relief. "We can go outside now."

I peeked around the open door to find the lights brightly illuminating the outside walkways and no sign of the ghosts. Pritchard and O'Donnell left first, with Lunn trailing out slowly behind them.

"Uh, morning?" Clara said.

Bennett grabbed a towel off a hook on the wall and draped it over his shoulders. "Yeah, we're too far below the surface for daylight, so we have to create artificial days and nights."

The Doctor's hands were restless and fidgety as she glanced outside. "I'd like to have a further look at that spaceship, but what about those things that aren't ghosts?"

"Oh, it's all right. They only come out at night."

Clara looked back at the Doctor and tried to smile. "Weird how that is not comforting."

The crew led us back to the hangar at the Doctor's request. She remained at the front of the group with Pritchard and Bennett, trying to learn more about the ghosts and the base. Clara stayed back with me, not speaking but occasionally looking at me when she thought I couldn't see her. Cass and Lunn trailed behind us at the very back of the group, signing quickly to each other, with O'Donnell right in front of them.

"You okay?" Clara whispered to me after a few minutes.

The Doctor happened to glance back at us then and I saw an unreadable flash of emotion in her eyes. She quickly looked away and continued talking with Pritchard. "Um, yeah, I guess," I mumbled.

"It's just, you're really quiet."

"I have a headache," I lied.

She reached for my hand, but pulled away the moment our fingers touched. It was impossible not to notice the hurt and frustrated expression on Clara's face. Had I done something wrong? _Why does she keep grabbing my hand?_

"Clara?"

"Hm?"

I swallowed a little nervously. "Why did you do that?"

"Do what?" she asked, not quite looking me in the eyes.

"Try to hold my hand?"

Clara shrugged and fiddled with one of her rings. "Instinct, I guess. We should catch up to the others. They're getting a little ahead of us," she said quickly.

Just ahead of the Doctor, a panel in the wall slid open to reveal the hangar and the alien ship inside. With her hands stuffed inside her trouser pockets, the Doctor raised her voice slightly while Clara and I quickened our pace. "If whatever they are-"

"They're ghosts," Pritchard said.

"They're _not_ ghosts - have been trying to kill you, why haven't you abandoned the base?" she continued.

Pritchard waved his hand somewhat dismissively. "Oh, that was my call. We've got about a trillion dollars worth of mining equipment here." The Doctor stopped walking then, making the rest of us pause as well. "We're not just going to abandon it- What?" Pritchard asked, glancing curiously at the Doctor. "If it all goes pear-shaped, it's not _them_ that lose a bonus."

Clara and I stood slightly behind the Doctor, but I could still see her face. I watched her approach Pritchard with a surprisingly calm expression. She patted him lightly on the arm and smiled sweetly. "It's okay. I understand. You're an idiot." She brushed past him and started across the room, turning on her heels to face the rest of the group as we all trailed after her. "Come to mention it, why is there a Faraday cage on the base?"

"It's the mining equipment," Bennett explained. "It runs on nuclear fission. The Faraday cage has been lined with lead to act as a shelter in the event of a radiation leak."

The Doctor's gray, bushy eyebrows raised and her lips curled into a mischievous smile. "So, we are fighting an unknown homicidal force that has taken the form of your commanding officer and a cowardly alien, underwater, in a nuclear reactor. Anything else I should know? Someone got a peanut allergy, or something?"

She and Clara started inside the ship, excitement and curiosity written plainly across their faces. The Doctor was pacing across the front of the ship, staring at the floor and tapping the toe of her shoe against it. She mumbled something to herself, stroked her chin thoughtfully, and then crouched down to remove a panel from the floor. Glancing up at Clara with another unreadable expression, she started back down the steps.

"What's happened to the stuff you've removed? This is for long haul flights. There should be a suspended animation chamber for the pilot right here," she said, pointing to the floor just behind her. "Plus, one of the power cells is missing."

"Power cell?" Pritchard repeated, hurrying up the steps.

The Doctor hummed. "You can see the casing is empty."

The rest of the crew filed into the ship and grouped around the panel in the floor, everyone except for Cass and Lunn. They had stayed back and were signing rapidly to each other. I watched them for a few moments before giving up on trying to understand them. The Doctor and Clara were concentrated solely on the panel and the crew and whatever seemed to be missing from the ship.

"It's not safe out here!" Lunn shout-whispered, making me and the others look towards him.

"What's the matter?" Clara asked as she started down the stairs.

Gesturing to Cass in frustration, Lunn said, "She won't let me look inside the spaceship. She says it's not safe. I'm saying it's not safe out here."

"I imagine they're pretty valuable," Pritchard said.

The Doctor looked sharply at him. "What?"

"I-I mean powerful. Those power cells. I imagine they're pretty powerful."

The Doctor hummed and barely suppressed an eye roll. "Well, they can zap a vessel from one side of the galaxy to the other, so, you know, take a wild stab in the dark."

"Then the missing one must still be out there."

"Yes, well, otherwi- Sorry," she said, looking at O'Donnell in exasperation, "why is this man still talking to me?"

Pritchard started down the stairs and stood off to the side, eyeing the others silently. The Doctor, O'Donnell, and Bennett exited the ship as Pritchard slipped away to the other side of the room. He glanced over his shoulder and our eyes met. He paused and I quickly looked away, crossing my arms over my chest. When I looked back at him a few seconds later, he had disappeared.

The Doctor moved to stand beside me with Clara just behind her. "So what have we got?" she asked, looking briefly at me with raised eyebrows and an almost-there smile. "Moran dies, and then those things appear. They can walk through walls. They only come out at night and they're sort of see-through."

Clara shook her head, watching the Time Lady pace. "Doctor, wait, you're not saying…?"

"I might be."

"Might I suggest we move to the bridge?" O'Donnell said, glancing between the Doctor and Clara. "We really should be checking the systems by now and we can get you more information on these things, whatever they are, there."

"Could I ask," Bennett said later on our way to the bridge, "why you're wearing pajamas?"

I looked down at my baggy, oversized sleep shirt, patterned cotton pants, and socks. Usually I wore nightgowns or just a shirt and underwear to bed, but it had been cooler than normal the previous night. My stomach churned and I suddenly felt a little off. I stammered a few nonsense words in confusion, unsure of how to respond until Clara answered for me.

"Oh, she was just taking a nap when we got here. She didn't really have time to change because we didn't want to leave her alone in the TARDIS, but the Doctor knew something was wrong and we had to investigate."

"Not even time to get shoes?" Bennett laughed.

I shrugged and attempted a smile. "I forgot," I mumbled, hoping he would drop the question and leave.

We entered the bridge, a well lit room with more white walls and decorated with several control panels, a computer station, and a yellow tinted map displayed near the entrance. There was a large, white table in the center of the room with a few chairs on either side. Bennett and O'Donnell both pulled out a chair and sat down, Bennett's rolling backwards slightly. Cass leaned up against the wall and Lunn moved to stand by the computer station on the far end of the room. Clara pulled out a chair for me and just as I sat down, the Doctor exclaimed, "They're ghosts!"

She had been silent the entire time, ignoring everyone else even when they stared at her in confusion. She laughed and started towards Bennett, grabbing his hand and shaking it excitedly as she walked past him. "Yeah, ghosts," she said.

Clara and I shared a look and she leaned one arm against the back of my chair. "You said there was no such thing," she said. "You actually poo pooed the ghost theory."

"Yes, well, well, there was no such thing as- as socks or smartphones and badgers until there suddenly were! Besides, what else could they be?" she countered, pacing around the entire perimeter of the room. "They're not holograms, they're not flesh avatars, they're not autons, they're not digital copies bouncing around the Nethersphere. No, these people are literally, actually, dead." She paused for a moment and then leaned back against the table, shaking her head. " _Wow_. This is- it's amazing! I've never actually met a proper ghost!"

Cass began signing again, this time visibly upset. "Moran was our friend."

Stepping around the table, Clara lightly tugged on the Doctor's wrist. "The cards," she whispered, just loud enough that I could barely hear her.

The Doctor frowned and then her eyebrows shot up. "Oh! Oh, right you are." She hurried to the head of the table, next to me, and fumbled around in her coat pocket for something.

Clara sighed and stuck her hand in the Time Lady's pocket, pulling out what looked like a stack of prompt cards. She shuffled through each of them until finally choosing one and handing the stack to the Doctor. The Doctor cleared her throat and looked seriously at the card. "I'm very sorry for your loss," she began. "I'll do all I can to solve the death of your friend slash family member slash pet."

The crew all looked at each other, then back at the Doctor, and Clara just shook her head. She took the cards back and shoved them into her coat pocket, sighing with a resigned expression.

The Doctor looked at the crew and smiled. "But don't you see what this means? Death! It was the one thing that unified every single living creature in the universe and now it's gone. How can you just sit there? Don't you want to go out there right now, wrestle them to the ground and ask them questions until your throat falls out? What's death like? Does it hurt? Do you still get hungry? Do you miss being alive? Why can you only handle metal objects? Oh, I didn't know I'd noticed that," she mumbled, obviously surprised. "Okay, so they'll try to kill you. Blah, blah, blah. What does that matter? You come back! A bit murder-y, sure, but even so!" She paused again, taking a deep breath and making a smoothing motion with her hand. "Calm, Doctor, calm. You were like this when you met Shirley Bassey." She shook her head and the excitement passed slightly. "Okay. Question one. What is a ghost? Question two. What do they want?"

Suddenly, the lights overhead shut off and the room fell into darkness only illuminated by the pale yellow lights behind the map and stationed along the floors. O'Donnell jumped up and looked to the computer station.

"Good evening," the overhead computer voice said. "Entering night mode."

"That's not right," O'Donnell said, her hands flying across the keyboard as she checked the systems. "We're switching back into night mode again. This can't happen! No, no, no!"

A loud, echoing bell sounded in the distance and I half jumped out of my seat. Clara and the Doctor glanced at me, then the Doctor looked off into the distance as if she could see her ship through the walls. The cloister bell continued ringing, low and ominous as the lights seemed to flicker.

"The TARDIS," the Doctor muttered.

"Doctor? Doctor!" Clara cried as the Time Lady ran off.

I leapt out of my chair and ran after the two women, the Doctor several paces ahead of us both as she darted through the base. We skidded to a halt when we reached an intersection, almost falling myself as my socks slipped on the floor, the Doctor already scrambling inside. The TARDIS loomed in front of us, reaching nearly double my height, and the light on top blinked slowly as I stared agape at her. A low hum sounded from inside the ship and Clara quickly hurried after the Doctor.

I stared spellbound at the ship instead, hardly believing my own eyes. I peeked through the door left ajar and felt my heart skip a beat or two. A metal walkway ran from the doors to the middle of the room, where an enormous console stretched from floor to ceiling. Metal railings encircled the entirety of the room on two separate levels, the top level decorated with bookcases, a leather chair, and a chalkboard.

"It must be the ghosts," the Doctor said as she circled the console. I stepped onto the metal walkway and cautiously rested my hand on the railing. "That's why she was upset when we got here."

Clara waved her hand and smoke billowed around her face. "Why? I don't understand."

"It's just what I was saying. You live and you die. That's it. The ghosts are aberrations. A splinter of time in the skin. They're unnatural." Looking up at the spinning cogs attached to the ceiling, the Doctor said, "She wants to get away from them."

"So, what do we do?"

Grabbing something on the console, the Doctor yanked her hand down and the cloister bell suddenly stopped. The engines that had been groaning seconds earlier faded away and the red lights switched to white. The door shut behind me and I jumped, eyeing the wooden panel suspiciously.

The Doctor furrowed her brows as she looked around. "Put the handbrake on."

I stepped further down the walkway, my eyes flinching across every inch of the room. The smoke was quickly dissipating as I stepped onto the main platform, my toes curling when I felt grating instead of solid ground through my socks. The ship hummed softly when my fingers hesitantly brushed the console. Warmth spread from my fingers through my arm and settled in my belly and although I had been scared and confused before, those worries seemed suddenly less… worrying.

It was then that I noticed both Clara and the Doctor watching me. I quickly looked away and withdrew my hands so they were folded over my chest again. The Doctor approached me and leaned against the console, awkwardly scratching her chin. "Did you, er, did you want to change clothes?" she asked softly. "Maybe get some shoes?"

I glanced at my feet and nodded. "Yeah."

She turned and pointed to a small set of stairs that led from the console platform to a lower level of the room. "There's a doorway just down there. The TARDIS will show you where to go."

Nodding in thanks, I hurried down the steps and through the doorway. There was a double hallway that led to the left and right with a wall directly in front of me. The lights laid into the walls of the left hallway flashed. Sparing the opposite hallway a glance, I started towards the lights. There was a closed doorway with a button at the end, only a few paces away, and as I approached the door I heard Clara start to speak.

"You're distancing yourself," she said, her voice drifting down the hallway.

"You picked up on that, did you?"

Clara sighed. "Look, it hurts me just as much as it hurts you. But she needs both of us, Theta, you know that."

I moved so I was leaning against the wall with my head titled in the direction of the console room. "I thought I was ready," the Doctor said softly and I strained to hear her properly. "I thought I could handle this. But the way she looks at me, like- like I'm not real-"

"Like you're a dream."

"I was thinking of… leaving earlier. Just leaving the base so I could show her, _prove_ to her that it's not a dream. This isn't what I wanted her first memories to be of."

"I know. But there's nothing we can do to change that now. We're here and I know you won't actually leave. Not when all their lives are at stake."

The TARDIS groaned then and I pushed off of the wall. The light above the doorway blinked and I quickly pressed the button, hurrying through as the door opened and closed with a low hiss. The ship had clearly directed me to the wardrobe. The room was about the size of a regular store with rows and rows of clothing hanging up on portable racks. There was a full-size mirror at the front of the room, held a few inches off the ground by a stand and a chair right next to it. A pair of jeans, a few shirts, and a skirt were folded on top of the cushion.

 _Something tells me these are going to fit,_ I thought with a smile. Luckily enough for me, I'd gone to bed with a sports bra and underwear the night before and didn't have to worry about finding new undergarments. I quickly changed into the more comfortable looking shirt, a black v-neck, and considered the skirt. It was ankle length with diagonal black and white stripes, and didn't require a belt like the jeans would. _Comfortable and easy to run in. Skirt it is._

Placed against the wall behind me was a large case full of shelves with dozens of shoes. I opted for a pair of sandals that strapped behind my foot at my Achilles tendon and then headed back to the console room. As I rounded the corner, I froze mid-step and felt my jaw fall open as I spotted Clara and the Doctor hugging. The Doctor was leaning against the console, her arms loose around Clara's hips and her lips pressed to Clara's temple.

"What the hell?" I whispered.

Clara spotted me first, quickly pulling out the Doctor's arms and walking around the console towards me as I stepped onto the platform. She smiled bashfully at me and tucked the longer strands of her bangs behind her ears. The Doctor completely avoided looking me in the eyes and fiddled with a few of the switches on the console.

"Hey," Clara said. "You look nice."

I smiled and adjusted my glasses, noticing that she'd taken off her leather jacket. "Thanks."

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah."

Starting for the doors with a spring in her step, Clara gestured to the Doctor with a wave of her hand. "Come on, then!"

The Doctor hurried after her, shaking her head. "Whoa! Ho, ho, ho, ho! Where do you think you're going?"

Clara furrowed her brows in confusion. "Out there, where the action is."

Scratching her head, the Doctor turned towards the console for a moment. "Look, you, er-"

"What? What is it?"

"This is my own fault," the Time Lady sighed. "I like adventures as much as the next person. If the next person is a person who likes adventures. Even so, don't- don't go native."

"What do you mean? I'm not."

The Doctor gestured emptily. "Look, there's a whole dimension in here, but there's only room for one me."

"Now wait a second. _You_ just raved about ghosts like a kid who had too much sherbet! And besides, Di basically gets to be you two point O." Clara protested.

"Oh, d'you know what you need? You need a hobby."

Clara laughed and shook her head. "I really don't."

"Or even better, another person in our relationship." I looked at the Doctor like she was insane. "Come on, you lot, you're bananas about relationships! You're always writing songs about them, or going to war, or getting tattooed."

"That's not how we work and you know it."

"I know, but-"

"Doctor, I'm fine."

The Doctor ran a hand through her hair and then looked down at her hands. "I just felt that I-I-I had to say something," she stammered.

"I know." Stepping forward, Clara smoothed her hands over the Doctor's coat lapels. "And I appreciated it."

"Because I've got a duty of care," the Doctor continued, her eyes flitting across her companion's face almost worriedly.

Clara smiled. "Which you take very seriously, I know."

"So can I stop now?" the Doctor asked, looking physically uncomfortable as she continued speaking.

Nodding with a little laugh, Clara patted her hands on the Time Lady's shoulders and stepped back. She opened the doors and stepped outside. The Doctor motioned towards the door, wordlessly offering for me to go before her. As we left the TARDIS, O'Donnell's voice came over the speakers.

"Attention, all crew. The Drum has switched to night mode early so grab provisions and make your way to the Faraday cage."

Clara looked to the Doctor and started chewing on her fingernails. "Shall we help them with provisions?"

"You can help with provisions. Diana and I will go back to the bridge."

"Alright. See you in a bit then."

She went off down one of the corridors to our right and the Doctor watched her for a few moments before starting down a different one. The walk to the bridge was perhaps one of the most painfully awkward few minutes of my entire life. I was still reeling from seeing the Doctor and Clara embrace so comfortably and freely, and from the realization that they were in a relationship. Was I was 'one of those' shippers who firmly believed they were in love? Absolutely, but actually seeing confirmation in a semi-realistic manner was more than a little confusing, dream or not.

O'Donnell hardly noticed us when we returned to the bridge. She was still focused on trying to get the base back into day mode, with no luck. I sat down at the table and swiveled the seat from side to side. The Doctor stood by the computer station, looking at the security camera relays as she leaned her shoulder against the wall.

"Have you spotted either of the ghosts yet?"

O'Donnell shook her head. "No. And they've done nothing, caused no incidents yet. I'm still waiting for everyone to finish reporting in."

"Well, Clara should be in the mess hall by now to help with provisions."

"Bennett's in there, and Cass and Lunn are in the Faraday Cage."

The Doctor hummed and looked back at the camera relays. "That just leaves Pritchard."

Scooting her chair to a different station along the wall, O'Donnell began speaking into a microphone. "Pritchard, you are unaccounted for," she said, her voice echoing throughout the base's speakers. "Contact the bridge or get to the Faraday cage immediately." She waited, checking the relays for any sign of him. "Pritchard, contact the bridge or get to the Faraday cage!" Leaning back in her seat, O'Donnell adjusted her cap. "No answer."

"I don't see him," the Doctor said as she shoved her hands into her trouser pockets.

Bennett's voice came through the speaker system by the microphone, crackling slightly. "O'Donnell, it's okay. Pritchard's in here."

O'Donnell rolled her eyes and grabbed the mic. "Pritchard, you moron, grab your stuff. We're locking down early." Ending the transmission, O'Donnell rolled back to the computer station. "In case I can't get this back into day mode," she said to the Doctor.

Just a few seconds later, Bennett's voice came over the speaker again. "Man overboard. Man overboard! We need a rescue team in the water now!"

"Bennett, wait!" said Clara. "Look. It's Pritchard."

The Doctor shot past me like a rocket, practically sprinting through the doorway. I turned towards the relays and saw her running across a few different screens. She burst into the mess hall and skidded to a halt a few paces in front of Clara and Bennet. Cass and Lunn came into view then, standing just behind the Doctor. They were all looking in the direction of the camera, but I couldn't see what it was that had them so spooked. Then Pritchard's ghost stepped into view.

O'Donnell tapped rapidly at the control panel, muttering to herself. "Come on, come on." I glanced back at the relay and saw the group start to back away slowly as Pritchard's ghost lifted a chair into the air. "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on."

The nighttime lights faded into daytime lights and Pritchard vanished, the chair clattering to the floor immediately. The computer announced day mode and I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding. O'Donnell groaned and fell forward, her elbows braced against the table as she let her face fall into her hands.

"You okay?" I asked.

She took a deep breath and smiled a little shakily at me. "These ghosts are gonna be the death of me," she grumbled.

Once the group returned and verified that no one else was hurt, the Doctor had O'Donnell play back the security footage to find out what happened to Pritchard. When he had left the ship earlier, he had apparently gone diving to look for the missing power cell the Doctor had mentioned. But when he returned to the base, the ghosts trapped him inside the airlock and drowned him. I had to look away when the chamber flooded with water.

"They're working out how to use the base against us," the Doctor said after O'Donnell ended the footage. "Altering the time settings so they can go about uninhibited, opening the airlocks. They're learning."

Clara nodded. "And now there's three of them."

Bennett cleaned his glasses on the corner of his shirt. "Cass, what do we do?"

She thought for a moment. "We abandon the base," Lunn said for her while she signed. "Topside can send down a whole team of marines or ghost-busters or whatever."

The Doctor shook her head. "Wait, wait-"

Cass rounded on her and signed angrily in her face. "I can't force you to leave, so you can stay and do the whole cabin in the woods thing and get killed or drowned if you want. But my first priority is to protect my crew."

Backing away with a single nod of acknowledgment, the Doctor walked over to the computer station to stand next to Clara. They whispered something to one another, but I couldn't be bothered to strain my ears to listen.

Cass continued signing, this time directed at O'Donnell. "O'Donnell, contact Topside. Tell them we're abandoning the base on my orders," Lunn said.

On the right side of the computer station was a telephone on a pedestal. She picked up the phone and pushed a button on the pedestal. "Topside, Topside, this is Lance Corporal Alice O'Donnell from Drum Control. Over."

Topside's reply played out over the speakers. "Drum Control, this is Topside. We have received your message. Submarine on its way. Over."

"Repeat, Topside. Over."

"We've received your request for a rescue sub. It's two minutes away. Over."

O'Donnell shook her head. "Topside, who did you speak to and when was this request made? Over."

"Drum Control, it was in Morse code and arrived maybe half an hour ago. Said it was urgent, comms were down, two crew members critically ill, full paramedic team requested. Over."

Snatching the phone out of O'Donnell's hand, the Doctor said, "Topside, this is the Doctor, UNIT security visa seven one zero apple zero zero. You may be familiar with my work. Call back the sub."

A brief pause. "Doctor, why would-"

"Call it back!" she snapped. "We have a hazardous and undefined contagion on board. This base is now under quarantine."

"What did you do that for?" Bennett asked after the Doctor replaced the phone.

"Well, none of us sent the message, did we? So that means that the ghosts sent it, which means they want that crew down here."

"Why would they do that?" Lunn said for Cass.

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, I don't know, but I'm pretty certain it's not so they can all form a boy band. Okay," she said. "We solve this on our own. The ghosts can only come out at night so they change the base's time settings. Why? What's different at night?"

"It's mainly atmospheric. The lights are dim, the noise from the engines is muffled," O'Donnell said.

The Time Lady shook her head. "No. Something else, something else."

Cass gasped. "The diagnostic sweep. When the systems are checked, that stops at night to save power."

"What systems specifically?"

"Life support, the locks. They're electromagnetic. They have to be secured in case of flooding, so throughout the day, they're checked, one by one, every few seconds," O'Donnell added.

"The answer is in there somewhere, I can smell it." The Doctor smiled. "O'Donnell, excellent work returning the base to day mode."

She blushed and smiled giddily. "Shut up. It was nothing. You- You really think so?"

"Mm. Now put it back into night mode."

Her smile dropped immediately. " _What?_ "

"We know nothing!" the Doctor exclaimed. "We don't know what they want. That's what's getting us killed. Well, _I_ won't run. Not any more. So, O'Donnell, kindly put the base back into night mode. We want to know what these ghosts are after? We ask them. We're going to do the impossible. We're going to capture a ghost."

* * *

The speakers sounded again with computer's greeting: "Good evening. Entering night mode."

Cass and I stood behind O'Donnell at the computer station, anxiously watching the relays. Bennett nervously stepped into the mess hall and I could see him visibly shrink away as he saw the three ghosts. He waved at them and then scrambled down the adjoining corridor, terror written plainly across his face.

"Bennett's got them moving and Clara's in position," O'Donnell said.

The Doctor was at the opposite end of the room by the door, focused on the base map. "Clara, Bennett is going to run across the top of the T-junction to your right in about ten seconds. Draw the ghosts towards you. Turn right, and then take second left."

On the relays, I could see Bennett as he ran out of view of one camera and into view of another with the ghosts just behind him. Clara jumped out from her hiding spot as Bennett ran past, shouting and waving at the ghosts to get their attention. They turned towards her and then advanced as she spun around and started running.

The Doctor had come up behind me while Clara did her part, watching the cameras. "Lunn, they're coming your way," she said as she went back to the map. "Clara's going to duck down to her left. You've got to keep the ghosts going on the same route they're on now. Then after about fifty yards on your left, there is a flood door. O'Donnell will close the door once you're through."

She paused, seemingly waiting for Lunn's response. She looked back at the cameras and put a hand to her headset. "Lunn, don't let them see where you go."

All four of us watched with baited breath as Lunn distracted the ghosts, hoping divert them so Clara could get to safety. But instead of all three ghosts advancing on Lunn, only one of them did while the other two went after Clara.

"They've separated," O'Donnell said worriedly. "Moran and the mole guy are going after Clara."

"Clara, look out. Two ghosts are still on your case. Right behind you!" O'Donnell said into her own headset.

The Doctor went back to the map and ran her finger along the corridors. "Clara, there's a flood door at the end of the corridor, around the corner to your right. We'll close it from here." She looked back at the cameras. "Listen to me. You've got to get through that door before Moran and the other ghost sees you."

Once Clara had gotten past the flood door, the Doctor gave O'Donnell the signal and the door was shut. The Doctor confirmed that she was safe before checking in on Lunn. Then, at her order, O'Donnell shut the second flood door and Lunn was out of range of the camera.

Cass and I couldn't hear anything that the others were saying since we didn't have headsets, but we could tell something was wrong when the Doctor's face grew more serious than usual. Cass touched my arm and asked what was going on, looking worriedly between me, the Doctor, and the relays.

"Doctor? What's wrong?" I said. "What happened?"

"It saw him."

The relay focused on Lunn showed Pritchard's ghost stepping through the flood door and into the chamber.

"We don't have a camera in there," O'Donnell said, shooting the Doctor a worried expression.

Cass, who had been reading everyone's lips to understand what was happening, shot towards the door only to have the Doctor block her. Cass groaned in frustration and paced back to the computer station, chewing nervously on her thumbnail as she watched the relay.

"Lunn, can you hear me?" the Doctor said into the headset. "Can you hear me? Lunn, what's happening?" She repeated herself over and over, clutching the headset as she stared at the relay in hopes of seeing something. Pritchard's ghost exited the chamber, melting through the door and then striding down the corridor. "Lunn? _Lunn?_ Can you hear me?"

Both O'Donnell and the Doctor let out a breath a moment later, and the Doctor ran a hand through her hair. O'Donnell got up and smiled reassuringly at Cass, placing her hands on her shoulders. "Cass, he's alive," she said.

"What's wrong with you?" the Doctor said, making me turn at look at her incredulously. "Why didn't it hurt you? Never mind, we'll worry about that later. Bennett, you're on again. Bennett, where are you?"

We all let out a collective sigh when we spotted Bennett on the relay, caught in his hiding place with all three ghosts just around the corner.

The Doctor leaned against the back of O'Donnell's empty chair. "Bennett, can you hear me? There are two ghosts just around the corner from you." She frowned. "The Faraday cage is across the intersection and down the corridor to your right. This last bit is down to you."

On screen, Bennett dodged across the intersection and down another corridor. The ghosts spotted him and followed, easily catching up to him despite the fact that he was running at full speed. He ran down two more corridors, rounding a corner and finding himself at the Faraday cage just as planned. The cage door was opened and stepping into the doorway, a hologram of Clara appeared. The ghosts seemed to move even faster and strode into the cage, walking directly through the hologram.

The Doctor appeared on the relay and I looked over my shoulder, only realizing then that she had left. Back on the relay, the door quickly slammed shut behind the ghosts and as the Doctor ran up to the cage whilst fidgeting with her sonic sunglasses. The hologram disappeared with a wave of static. A cacophony of footsteps sounded by the door, and Cass, O'Donnell, and I turned to see the others running through the doorway.

Cass immediately pulled Lunn into a hug, while Bennett, who very clearly wanted to hug O'Donnell, just waved a little awkwardly at the other woman and let her playfully punch him in the arm. "Oh, I'm fine, by the way," Clara said, leaning against the table as she caught her breath. "Just in case any of you were worried."

"Sonic glasses Wi-Fi locked in," said O'Donnell. "On screen B2."

Clara and I turned. Cass was standing next to O'Donnell, staring at the relay that showed the Faraday cage. She signed something and shook her head. "She says she can't see them properly," Lunn said. "The glass is too thick and they're too far away."

The Doctor apparently said something because O'Donnell and Clara began protesting. "What?"

"Doctor, you can't go in there, they will kill you!" Clara practically shouted.

I grabbed Clara by the hand. "What did she say? What's going on?"

Clara shook her head in frustration. "She wants to go into the cage since Cass can't see them well enough. But it's too dangerous-" She paused, seemingly to listen to the Doctor. "O'Donnell, unlock the door."

"You're letting her in?" I asked.

"It's the only way."

Back on the screen, I could see the Doctor standing just inside the cage. The tall, dark skinned ghost, Moran's ghost, stepped forward and thrust a hand inside the Doctor's chest. She flinched and started to fall backwards until she suddenly stood upright again and began speaking. I still couldn't hear what she was saying, so I looked to Clara and asked what was happening.

She adjusted the headset and squinted at the relay. "I don't think she's hurt. She was just being melodramatic, as usual."

Lunn began speaking for Cass again. "She says they're saying the same thing- the same phrase over and over. They're saying: the dark, the score- no, the sword, the… for sale? No, the forsaken! The temple. Yes, she's sure. The dark, the sword, the forsaken, the temple." Lunn looked up at the screen, where the Doctor was pulling a confused expression. "Just that. Over and over."

A few moments later, Bennett started rushing around the room. I shot Clara a look and she sighed, pulling the headset off and then running a hand over her face. "The Doctor said she needed maps for… something."

"Why?"

"Apparently she know what the ghosts are saying, why they're saying it."

"And why's that?"

"Well, she's keeping us in suspense."

"As usual," I guessed, managing a smile and a genuine laugh.

Clara nodded, but her smile faltered for a second and her eyes flickered to mine. "Aren't you supposed to know what's going to happen?" she wondered. "Or at least have an idea, even though things are different?"

Her question caught me off guard. "Am I?" When she nodded, I shrugged and leaned back against the edge of the table. "Well that's dream logic for you."

"Don't you remember what's going to happen?"

I furrowed my brows, trying to recall details of the episode and what was supposed to happen next, and although I remembered, there was a fogginess in my brain that made it difficult to sort through each thought. "I, um, I remember some of it," I told her, adjusting my glasses so they were perfectly balanced on the bridge of my nose. "But it's hard to process. My head feels kinda foggy."

"Are you okay? Does your head hurt?" she asked.

"No, I'm- I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm a total baby about pain, Clara. If my head was hurting, you'd know," I said.

She hummed thoughtfully and smiled, but the worry didn't leave her eyes. "Okay, well, just take it easy. Why don't you sit down? Do you want some water?"

"Clara, I'm fine. You don't have to mother me."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I just- I worry about you, okay? The Doctor, too, she just isn't very good at expressing her feelings. That and she's possibly more stubborn than I am."

"That's saying something," I teased, daring to nudge her arm with my elbow.

"Shut up," she laughed. "Just for that, I'm going to mother you for the rest of the day."

The Doctor returned soon after, digging through her coat pockets frantically. Bennett had laid out some of the physical maps on the table and started up a screen in the center with a few more maps displayed there. The Doctor started pulling things out of her pockets; first a handkerchief and a yoyo, then an apple, a ping pong ball, a black cell phone, a handful of hair ties, a knobby stress ball, a guitar pick, and a spoon. She poured over the maps, fingers tracing marked lines and paths of solar systems and star charts, and I couldn't help but notice the gold ring on her left hand. Clara moved to sit down on the opposite end of the table, out of the Doctor's way, and I followed. We stayed sitting for a few minutes, Clara and I absently fiddling with whatever was within our reach, while the others chatted softly with each other. The Doctor remained focused on the maps, occasionally muttering to herself, until she cried out.

Clara stood up. "Doctor?"

"They're coordinates."

"What?"

"The words. They're coordinates."

"How can they be coordinates?" Bennett asked.

"The dark? Space. I figured that one out in a snap. So, whoever's following the coordinates knows they're going to another planet. The sword?" She picked up the apple and handed it to Bennett, then moved him so he was standing near the computer station. Then she moved O'Donnell in front of him, handing her the knobby stress ball. She waved Clara over and handed her the ping pong ball, then moved her in front of the others. She picked up the yoyo and looked over at me. "Diana, come here. Hold this."

She directed me in front of Clara and pushed the yoyo into my hand, then had all four of us hold our arms at a specific angle so the objects formed a diagonal line.

"Orion's sword. The sword, the three stars - although one isn't actually a star but the Orion Nebula - hanging down from Orion's belt. But if viewed from back here," the Doctor said, hurrying behind us to the computer station, "the Earth, which is Diana in this case, becomes the fourth bit of the sword. So, narrowed it down to a planet now. Getting closer."

She returned and took the items back, placing them haphazardly on the table. Turning around, she leaned back against the table to watch us. "The forsaken. The forsaken or abandoned or empty town. See? It's a location, beaming out to someone or something across the universe, over and over. And every time they kill one of us-"

"It strengthens the signal!" Clara realized. "Another ghost, another transmitter."

"Which is why they sent for that rescue sub," O'Donnell added.

The Doctor nodded. "Get more people down here, kill them, make even more ghosts to beam out the coordinates."

"But why are they beaming out the coordinates?" Cass signed. "Is it a distress call?"

"It could be. Or a warning. Might even be a call to arms. It could mean, 'Come here, they're vulnerable, help yourself-.' Wait a minute," the Time Lady said. "Wait a min-u-et. Do you know what this means? It means that they're not a natural phenomenon. It means that someone is deliberately getting people killed, hijacking their souls and turning them into transmitters."

O'Donnell crossed her arms over her chest. "But what do the coordinates lead to, though? To us? To the ghosts? What?"

The Doctor snapped her fingers and pointed at her. "Ah! What the coordinates are for. That is part of the answer to the other question you're all thinking." She glanced expectantly at each of us, a hopeful and excited look on her face. But when none of us said anything or offered an answer, her smile dropped. "Really? Come on. None of you? Surely just being around me makes you cleverer by osmosis? What. Is. The other. Question?"

"The temple," Lunn said for Cass. "The fourth part of the directions. What's the temple?"

" _Finally_ ," the Doctor groaned. "It's like pulling teeth. This is the flooded military town," she said, pointing to one of the maps. "Shops, houses, town square, and this."

Clara leaned over to look at it. "A church?"

"Whatever the coordinates are for, it's in that church. Find that and you're a hop, skip and a jump to stopping them."

"Wait, you're not actually suggesting that? But we're safe now," Bennett snapped. "The ghosts are in the cage. We can get out of here."

The Doctor set her jaw. "No one has to stay. In fact, I would prefer it if you went. You'll all get in the way and ask ridiculous questions. But, you know, you have chosen to protect and serve," she said, gesturing to Cass, Lunn, and O'Donnell. She turned to Bennett. "You have given yourself to science and the pursuit of knowledge. None of you have chosen anonymous or selfish lives. You go and a part of you will always wonder, 'What would have happened if I'd stayed? How could I have helped? What would I have learned?' I want you to go. But you should know what it is that you're leaving."

The others all looked at each other. They were all silent until Cass began signing with a resigned expression. Lunn raised his eyebrows at her and she nodded, gesturing for him to translate for her. "Cass says we should go, but everything that happens here is her responsibility now, so she's going to stay. So," he said, exhaling heavily, "I guess I should too."

"Well, count me in," O'Donnell chimed. "Who wants to live forever anyway?"

"Sorry. Um, have you gone insane? We can go home." He looked at O'Donnell and she shrugged and giggled. His face softened and the corners of his lips turned up. "They're ghosts, though. How can they be ghosts? Well, at least if I die, you know I really will come back and haunt you all."

Since the ghosts had already killed Pritchard after he went diving for the power cell, sending anyone else out to dive for the church was out of the question. Bennett suggested using one of the drone submarines the base had so that no one would be in danger. And transporting anything they might find or need back to the base would be easy since the drone was capable of hauling tons of weight.

But while the crew began planning to send the sub out, Clara pulled the Doctor outside and began speaking to her. I stayed by the table, unable to help anyone with the sub and too awkward to join the pair that had slipped away since it was obviously a private conversation. I grabbed the yoyo off the table and fiddled with the loose end of the string, glancing occasionally at the Doctor and Clara through the window. Whether she noticed me or not, I could very obviously see the Doctor looking at me every now and then. I tried to strain my ears and hear them, but Clara kept her voice low and the others were talking loud enough that it was of no use.

I replaced the yoyo and noticed that the Doctor had left her sonic sunglasses on the table. Making sure the Doctor wasn't looking my way, I slipped my glasses off and replaced them with the sonic ones. At first my vision was slightly fuzzy, as it usually was when I didn't wear my glasses, but then the lenses went static and my vision turned crystal clear. Everything was a shade darker since they were still sunglasses, but otherwise they seemed perfectly normal. That is, until I pressed my finger against the bridge to push them up after they slid slightly. The glasses buzzed and the light fixture above the Doctor and Clara sparked, then fizzled out.

Immediately, the Doctor's eyes fixated on me through the window and I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment. She hurried back inside and I yanked the shades off so quickly that they caught on the piercing at the top of my ear, making me wince. The Doctor took them out of my hands before I could put them back on the table.

"I'm sorry-"

"What did you do?" she asked. Her tone was low and stern, but not angry.

"I-I just pushed them back up because they fell. I'm sorry, I was just curious."

She slipped them on and went back outside, looking up at the fixture while she adjusted the glasses. Clara put a hand on my arm, but I pulled away and walked to the other side of the table, sitting down at the chair farthest away from everyone else. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't even look anyone in the eyes. Unfortunately, I realized only after I sat down that my glasses were still on the opposite end of the table and I'd have to walk back around to get them.

I crossed my arms over my chest and spun the chair around so my back was turned to the others. My cheeks felt like they were on fire and I pressed my fingers to my skin in the hopes of cooling off.

"Here." A dark hand came into view in the corner of my eye, my glasses held delicately in the Doctor's long, thin fingers. I took them without looking any higher and slipped them on. "I didn't mean to embarrass you. I, er, I know how much you hate it."

" 's fine," I mumbled.

"How's your head?"

"My head?" I briefly glanced over my shoulder.

"Clara said you were having trouble remembering things?"

"No, I can remember things fine. It's just understanding them is hard." I looked down at the Doctor's shoes. "Which, I realize now, isn't a good sign."

"It's probably just a side effect. You should be fine soon."

"A side effect of what?"

The Doctor scratched her chin. "Well-" A call from Bennett made her stop. He explained that O'Donnell had released the sub and was on her way back, so they would start the search for the church when she returned. The Doctor looked back at me, visibly agitated, and started fiddling with her ring. "I don't have the time to properly tell you what's going on and this certainly isn't the right time to do it. But I'll explain everything later, I promise."

"What do you mean? What are you even talking about?"

"I'm just sorry that this didn't happen another way, an easier way."

I narrowed my eyes. "Doctor, what-? I don't understand."

She bowed her head and traced a finger over the ring. "I know. And I'm sorry."

"Doctor," O'Donnell called as she entered the room, "we're ready when you are."

The Doctor looked seriously at me. "Just… Just stay close to me and Clara, alright?"

"Why- Doctor, wait." I reached out to grab the Time Lady by her sleeve, but she was already dodging the table and halfway to the computer station. Groaning in frustration, I trailed after her.

"Hey," Clara said, catching me by the arm as we passed, "you okay? She didn't say anything mean to you, did she?"

"No, she's just being incredibly cryptic and _weird_. Which I really shouldn't be surprised by," I grumbled.

" _Shh_ ," the Doctor hissed, waving at us half heartedly as she looked up at the camera relays.

Bennett stood to the side of the computer station with what looked like a virtual reality headset strapped around his head. He had both of his arms extended in front of him with tiny sensors strapped to his fingers, the wires all connecting to the headset. "Okay, the sub is approaching the town square," he said. "Which way is the church?"

O'Donnell checked the clipboard she was holding where she had scribbled something. "Northwest, one hundred and fifty yards. That's it. Starboard two degrees."

Clara leaned up against O'Donnell's chair. "What are we looking for, exactly?"

The Doctor squinted at the relays. "Something that has the power to raise the dead and turn them into transmitters. I expect we'll know it when we see it."

"Wait!" Bennett exclaimed. "I think I've found the church."

The Doctor nodded. "That's it, keep going." It was difficult to see much of anything through the murky water and the animals swimming by, but something bright and white was caught in the sub's lights. "Wait. What's that? Move closer."

* * *

"It's the suspended-animation chamber from the spaceship," the Doctor said as she circled the object, leaving a trail of wet footprints behind her.

Clara started fiddling with her thumb ring. _Does everyone just fiddle with their rings then, or am I missing something?_ I wondered. "So the pilot could be in there?"

"There's _something_ inside there. But it's deadlock sealed. I can't open it." The Doctor frowned as she ran a hand over the surface. "It should be the pilot, it should be. So why do I think it isn't? More questions. Everything I solve, just more questions. I have to go back to the beginning. We arrive, we see the ghosts. They don't kill us. They lead us here, they show us the spaceship. Then they try to kill us." She looked back at the ship, looming emptily behind us. She hurried up the steps to stare at the words carved into the wall. "Not translated by the TARDIS. Why?" Cleaning her sonic shades on her handkerchief, the Doctor slipped them on and leaned in closer to the wall. "Lunn, translate for me," she said after returning to the group. "Whenever I step outside, you are the smartest person in the room. So tell me: what's weird about this? I know that it's all bonkers, but when you think about it, one thing keeps snagging in your mind. What is it?"

"The markings on the inside of the spaceship," Lunn translated, clearly finding her comment more than a bit weird.

"The markings on the inside of the spaceship! Yes! Why?"

Cass frowned. "I don't think they're just words."

"They're not. They're magnets."

"Magnets?" Bennett echoed.

"Well, a localized and manufactured electromagnetic field, to be precise." _Well that means absolutely nothing to me_ , I thought. "The dark. The sword. The forsaken. The temple. When we heard the coordinates for the first time, did anyone expect them not to be that? No? Exactly. Me neither. It's like we already knew, somehow. Like the words were already in us."

As the Doctor explained her reasoning, I could feel the fog start to clear. Everything she said was making sense and the instant she said it, I felt the memories click inside my head, but I couldn't catch up to her. Every detail, every memory of what she would say or what was about to happen was just out of reach.

"Everything we see or experience shapes us in some way. But these words actually rewrite the synaptic connections in your brain. They literally change the way you are wired. Clara, why don't I have a radio in the TARDIS?"

"You took it apart and used the pieces to make a clockwork squirrel."

The Doctor rolled her eyes. "Yes, _and_ because whatever song I heard first thing in the morning, I was stuck with. Two weeks of Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre. I was begging for the brush of Death's merciful hand. But don't you see? These words are an earworm. A song you can't stop humming, even after you die."

Clara nodded. "Okay. So, the spaceship lands here. The pilot leaves the writing on the wall so whoever sees it, when they die, they become a beacon of the coordinates, while he slash she slash they slash it snoozes in the suspended-animation chamber-"

"Waiting for his slash her slash theirs slash its mates to pick the message up," the Doctor interjected. "My God."

Nearly scaring me to death, a loud alarm began blaring throughout the base, loud enough that I almost had to cover my ears. "Attention, all crew," the computer said over the speakers. "Evacuate base immediately. Emergency protocols have been initiated. This safety message was brought to you by Vector Petroleum. Fuel for our futures."

O'Donnell sprinted across the room where a large screen was propped against the wall. Flashing in big, red letters were the words 'FLOODING INITIATED. REACTOR MALFUNCTION. EMERGENCY COOLING.' "Oh, no!" she cried. "The ghosts tampering with the day-night settings caused a computer malfunction. I-Its first priority is to keep the reactor cool, so it's opening the hull doors and it's flooding the base."

Cass began signing rapidly. "Cass says, close the internal flood doors. That'll contain the water in the central corridor," Lunn said.

"Where's the TARDIS?" Clara asked.

O'Donnell pointed somewhere on the base map after following Cass' orders. "On the other side."

"We need to get there," the Doctor said. "It's our only way out."

"Okay, we've got thirty seconds before the flood doors close."

The Doctor grabbed my hand and bolted before I could even process where we were headed. O'Donnell led us through the corridors with Bennett, the Doctor, and myself right behind her and Clara, Cass, and Lunn behind us. I could hear Clara shouting, but I didn't bother listening. All I cared about was getting to safety and not falling behind and drowning.

As we turned a corner and dashed across a corridor, I felt water splashing on my legs. My feet stuttered and I stumbled for a moment. Something pushed me from behind and I fell forward, nearly tripping. Multiple voices were shouting, some of them saying my name, and I was tugged forward into a dry corridor by O'Donnell.

"Doctor!" Clara yelled.

Across the flooding corridor, the flood door had shut and trapped Clara, Cass, and Lunn behind it. The Doctor looked back towards me as our flood door began to shut. She dove forward, under the door and landed hard on her front.

"Doctor!" I scrambled forward to help her up.

She got to her feet and pressed her hands against the door, gazing through the glass window at Clara. Beside the door was another screen and she pressed a few buttons, activating an intercom to Clara's side. "I'll get you and the others out. Sit tight. I'll come back for you," she said breathlessly.

I looked over the Doctor's shoulder to see Clara peking through her own window, the water level rising quickly. "Just come over here in the TARDIS now."

The Doctor shook her head. "The TARDIS won't go there. It won't go near the ghosts."

"You can't just leave us!"

"I'm not! Clara, listen to me. I'm going back in time to when this spaceship landed. If I can understand why this is happening, I can stop them killing anyone else. I-I can save you. You trust me, don't you, Clara?"

The water stretched above the windows now, but I could still see a wavy, unclear vision of her and the others. She nodded and the Doctor sighed heavily. She bowed her head and stepped back, letting her hand fall. Then, swallowing and and setting her jaw, the Doctor turned and marched down the corridor.

"Wait, you're going to go back in time?" Bennett said as we hurried to keep up with the Time Lady. "How do you do that?"

"Extremely well."

The TARDIS hummed as we stepped inside a minute later. We filed into the console room one by one and the moment my hands touched the console, I felt the same warm, soothing sensation as before. My rapidly beating heart calmed and I took a deep breath. The Doctor typed something into a keyboard on the opposite end of the console and then flipped a switch.

"It's- It's-"

"Yes, I know. We don't have time for that right now," the Doctor said flippantly. She pointed to the lower level. "Go through that doorway, to your left, and open the door at the end. Grab coats, scarves, hats, whatever you need. It'll be cold where we're going."

Bennet and O'Donnell gaped at the TARDIS for a moment before O'Donnell took him by the hand and excitedly guided him into the hallway. The Doctor glanced at me, eyebrows raised. "You should change into something warmer," she suggested.

"Clara's going to be okay," I blurted.

Her remarkably pale eyes darted back to mine. "Do you know that?"

"I remember it."

"Can you remember things easier now?"

"I don't know. Not really, but I _know_ she'll be okay. I can… feel it."

The Doctor managed to smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. She focused on the console again and continued typing. "Go change, Diana. I can't have you freezing to death in your wet clothes."

As I started down the steps, I turned to see the Doctor bent over the console with her face in her hands. She sighed, probably for the hundredth time that day, and then straightened to her full height. The TARDIS hummed again and the lights in the console room dimmed slightly. The Doctor rested a hand on the console. "I know, old girl. I know."


	2. Before the Flood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't very good and has several misspellings/grammatical errors, but I'll be editing it so it flows better sometime soon!

"Where's Bennett?" the Doctor asked, her hands stuffed into her trouser pockets as O'Donnell and I exited the TARDIS. "We need to get going."

O'Donnell rolled her eyes. "Oh, he's still throwing up. One small step for man, one giant _blegh_ ," she said, adding a gagging sound for effect.

The Doctor shrugged. "Oh, time travel does that sometimes."

"Somehow I doubt that Rose or Martha or Amy lost their breakfast on their first trip. What about you, Diana?"

I froze. "Huh?"

"You lose your breakfast the first time you had a go in the TARDIS?"

I looked over my shoulder at the ship and smiled, burying my face in the scarf I'd wrapped around my neck. "No. It was nice."

O'Donnell nodded. "There, you see?"

"You seem to know an awful lot about me," the Doctor noted.

"I used to be in military intelligence. I was demoted for dangling a colleague out of a window."

The Doctor raised her eyebrows and I saw the smallest hint of her breath hang in the air. "In anger?" she asked.

"Is there another way to dangle someone out a window?" O'Donnell scoffed. The Doctor smiled. "What year are we in?"

Sucking on her index finger, the Doctor held it in the air and concentrated for a moment. "Mm, 1980," she said.

"So pre Harold Saxon, pre the Minister of War, pre the moon exploding and a big bat coming out."

"The Minister of War?" the Doctor said as I asked, "Big bat?"

O'Donnell looked like she was about to explain, so the Doctor raised a finger to silence her. "No, never mind. I expect I'll find out soon enough."

Bennett stepped out of the TARDIS then, trying very hard _not_ to look like he had just vomited for several minutes. He awkwardly slipped his glasses on. "Sorry about that. Had a prawn sandwich. Might have been off."

"Uh huh. Well, no worries." The Doctor raised her eyebrows expectantly. "Shall we go?"

"Just one sec," O'Donnell said, suddenly hopping onto one foot. "I've just got something in my boot."

The Doctor extended her elbow to me. "Come on, then." I stared wide-eyed at her and something seemed to click in her mind because she quickly looked away. "Ah, sorry, er-"

"It's fine." She glanced back at me and I smiled, slowly wrapping my arm around hers. "Thank you."

We walked across the platform the TARDIS had landed on, moving from concrete to soil and grass in a few steps. Dozens of brick buildings roofed with metal surrounded us, almost every single wall covered with posters in Russian writing. The town was situated in a valley and the mountains that loomed over us on either side were tall and breathtakingly beautiful.

Bennett and O'Donnell came up the path after us, their boots crunching on the ground. "Are we in Russia?" I asked.

"No, we're still in Scotland."

"Still?"

"This is the town before it flooded, where the base was built," the Time Lady explained. "The TARDIS has brought us to when the spaceship first touched down. But here and now, it's the height of the Cold War. The military were being trained for offensives on Soviet soil."

"Is that the church?" O'Donnell asked. She pointed at the building in front of us and we could just see a small trio of spires on the opposite end, Orthodox crosses set at the tip of each one.

The Doctor huffed and marched around the building with myself in tow. I had stubbornly refused to change my shoes, only drying my feet off before changing into a dry skirt, and was already starting to regret leaving my toes bare and exposed to the cool weather. But I was also stubborn enough not to admit that I'd made a mistake, so I stumbled alongside the Doctor somewhat miserably and very silently.

As we rounded the church, the Doctor slowed to a halt. The large, pristinely white ship that was back in the base was standing right in front of the church. The Doctor looked down at me and I blinked, burrowing my face further into my scarf as I zipped up my borrowed jacket.

I released the Doctor's arm to go up the stairs after and immediately missed her warmth, crossing my arms to try and regain some of it. The large, white rectangular object Bennett had discovered with his submarine was onboard and behind it, on the large pedestal, appeared to be a body wrapped in cloth.

"Is that the pilot?" O'Donnell asked. "My God, look at size of it."

"No, that's the body."

"What do you mean, the body?"

The Doctor hummed lowly. "This isn't just any spaceship. It's a hearse."

A shiver ran down my spine and I instinctively huddled closer to the Doctor. She glanced back at me when my hands knocked against her back and she smiled briefly, but behind that smile was a worried expression and a furrowed brow.

"The suspended animation chamber's still here and the power cells for the engine," Bennett said.

"And there are no markings on the wall."

The Doctor nodded. "Yet," she added softly. Her eyes flitted to me again and her breath clouded. "You should have worn something warmer."

"I'm fine," I insisted.

She raised an eyebrow and shot me a skeptical look. "You're practically shivering," she noted. "You should have worn trousers instead."

"I'm fine. I like the cold."

"Doctor?" O'Donnell had circled the pedestal so she could grab the Time Lady by the sleeve. "Look."

I followed the line of her arm to the church, where a man in a suit and top hat was running towards the ship waving a handkerchief. "Hello, hello! Greetings!" he called.

The Doctor started down the steps, with Bennett, O'Donnell and myself just behind her. "It's him," O'Donnell breathed. "That's the ghost from the Drum."

The man wasn't a man at all, but an alien; the Whoville alien that had chased myself, Clara, and the Doctor across the base. The alien leaned forward, his nose almost touching the Doctor's, and then suddenly turned to look at me. "Remarkable," he murmured as he squinted at me. He turned to Bennett and O'Donnell with an astonished expression. "Oh, and humans too!" Whipping out a few business cards from his jacket, the alien handed one to each of us. "Albar Prentis, Funeral Director."

The card was white with simple, neat black lettering that read: _Albar Prentis, Universal Funeral Director. May the remorse be with you._ The Doctor tossed hers aside and stuffed her hands in her coat pockets.

"You're from Tivoli, aren't you?" Bennett said.

Albar laughed and nodded. "The most invaded planet in the galaxy! Our capital city has a sign saying, 'If you occupied us, you'd be home by now.' "

"Yes, I've had dealings with your lot before," said the Doctor. "I can't say I'm a fan."

"No, we do tend to antagonize!"

The Doctor narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

Albas exclaimed and hurried inside the ship, placing a hand on the pedestal. "This is the Fisher King. He and his armies invaded Tivoli and enslaved us for ten glorious years!" The Doctor and I shared an incredulous expression. "Until we were liberated by the Arcateenians. But, thank the Gods, soon we'd irritated them so much, they enslaved us, too!" the alien said with another incredibly annoying laugh.

"My first proper alien and he's an idiot," Bennett mumbled, rubbing his temples.

"And now, in accordance with Arcateenian custom, I've come to bury him on a barren, savage outpost."

O'Donnell sniffled. "You mean the town?" she asked.

The Doctor half scoffed, half chuckled. "He means the planet."

Albar hurried down the steps again. "Although, at the risk of starting a bidding war, _you_ could enslave me." He looked to the Doctor and grinned, leaning towards her again so their faces were nearly touching. "In the ship I have directions to my planet and a selection of items that you can… _oppress_ me with."

I wrinkled my nose. "Gross."

The Doctor stepped back a little. "Listen, we've come from the future. You're about to send some sort of signal. How do you do it? Is it a special pen?"

"What are you talking about?" the alien wondered.

"The technology you use. The thing that wrenches the soul out of the body and makes it repeat your coordinates for eternity. Give it to me now. I'm going to take the batteries out."

"We don't have anything like that," Albar laughed. "Even this belongs to the glorious Arcateenians."

The Doctor furrowed her brows. "So who sends the message?" She looked at the body inside the ship, then down at me and pursed her lips. "Back to the TARDIS. I need to talk to Clara."

* * *

The Doctor dialed a number into the phone attached to the console and, a few rings later, Clara's face showed up on the scanner. "Doctor? Doctor, are you alright?" she said.

"Yeah, fine," the Time Lady said dismissively. "So listen, the spaceship? It's a hearse." The Doctor paused when she noticed Clara's eyes watering. She leaned closer to the screen. "Clara, what's wrong?"

She swallowed her tears. "Another ghost has appeared."

"What? Who? Has someone died?"

Clara glanced off-screen, presumably at the ghost, and exhaled heavily. "Doctor, are the others there? Can they hear me?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Can I just talk to you?"

The Doctor nodded and scrambled to grab the phone receiver. "Clara, what's going on?" She leaned against the console, the fingers of her free hand fidgeting with the buttons on her jacket. Suddenly, her hand froze and her sharp intake of breath made me look up. Her face had gone very pale and her eyes were shut. "You're sure?"

I had taken a seat at one of the plain black chairs situated along the edge of the console platform, but I stood up when the Doctor made a noise that wasn't quite a cough. "Doctor? Are you okay?"

Her eyes flew open and locked onto me. She stared unblinkingly at me for several impossibly long seconds before flashing me the most painful smile I had ever seen. "I'm fine," she said softly. Then she turned her back to me and grabbed onto the edge of the console, the phone pressed firmly to her ear. "This is the future. It's already happened for you. Even the tiniest change- the ramifications could be catastrophic. It could spread carnage and chaos across the universe like ripples on a pond-… Clara, I have many rules that I must follow to ensure the safety of the universe. But if you think I'm just going to let this happen, then you don't know me at all."

Facing the console head-on, the Doctor replaced the receiver and Clara's face showed up on the scanner again. "So, this ghost. You've got a better view than me. How does it look? Any signs of trauma, any scars? Any clues as to how it dies?"

O'Donnell and Bennett, who had been sitting on the stairs on the opposite end of the room, stood in front of the scanner after the Doctor waved them over. Clara took a seat in one of the yellow plastic and metal chairs in the mess hall. "No, nothing. It's the same as all the other ghosts with the weird black eyes. I mean, i-it's wearing different clothes, but that seems to be the only difference."

"Let me see."

"But-"

The Doctor grabbed the scanner and brought it around to the other side of the console so no one else could see it. "Show me." She scratched her chin with a thoughtful expression. "I assume it's just saying the same thing as the others."

"No. It's saying a list of names," I heard Clara say. "Our names, mainly. Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell, Diana, Clara, Doctor, Bennett, Cass. Who's Prentis?"

"The mole-faced chap." The sound of something clattering startled me and the Doctor's face grew worried. "What's the matter? Clara, what's happening?"

"She's moved inside! She's inside here now, in the mess hall!"

The Doctor pursed her lips. "What is she doing?" she asked.

"Uh, well… nothing. She's just standing there."

The Doctor glanced briefly at me over the scanner. "She's not trying to kill you? Why is she not trying to kill you?"

"No. No, wait, she's moving, going towards the control panel," Clara said slowly. There was silence for a few moments and then I heard Clara gasp. "She's opened the Faraday cage. She's let the other ghosts out. Doctor-"

"I need to talk to her. Now."

"Didn't you hear me? She opened the Faraday cage! The other ghosts are outside. Shouldn't we be hiding?"

"In a minute. I need to talk to the ghost."

"Doctor, does that really matter right now?" O'Donnell asked. "They need to be somewhere safe so the ghosts don't kill them!"

"And don't you think we should see what's going on, as well?" Bennett added. "Who's the ghost? You said 'she', so it can't be me or Lunn."

"Well it's not you, so it's none of your concern," the Doctor snapped. "Now all of you be quiet so I can talk to this ghost."

"We have a right to know!" O'Donnell countered, her hands crossed over her chest and a stubborn frown on her face. "At the very least, Diana and I deserve to know since it could be either of our lives in danger."

The Doctor looked seriously at her, obviously unwilling to tell us who the ghost was but also aware that both Bennett and O'Donnell were right. She sighed and glanced down at the console for a moment. Then she lifted her gaze again and took a deep breath. "It's me," she said. "The ghost is me."

O'Donnell's mouth fell open. "What?"

The Doctor's eyes flitted to me and something stirred in the pit of my stomach, an uneasy feeling that somehow made me feel as if she wasn't telling the truth. I frowned, searching the Doctor's face for any sign that I was just being paranoid.

"I have to die."

"Doctor?" Clara called, snapping the Time Lady out of her trance. "The ghost stopped talking. Oh. No, wait, she's started again."

Lunn's voice came through the speakers. "Her message has changed. She's saying something different. She's saying-…"

"What?" Clara urged.

The Doctor waved her arms impatiently. "What?"

"She's saying, 'the chamber will open tonight.' "

Something in the Doctor's expression changed and she leaned closer to the scanner. "Clara, now that the ghosts are out, go to the Faraday cage. They won't be able to get you in there." She paused and lightly smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh, there's a problem."

"Oh, really? Problem? What problem?" Clara demanded. "Because everything else is going so smoothly!"

"The phone signal won't be able to get through. What you'll have to do, Clara, is put the phone outside and you can watch it through the little round porthole. And when you see it ringing, if it's safe to do so, go out and answer it."

"Okay, how long are you going to-"

"Clara, listen to me. Don't let that phone out of your sight. I need to be able to reach you, I need to know everything my ghost does. Do you understand? I'll come back for you," she said, her voice suddenly low and gentle. "I swear."

The call ended and the Doctor pushed the screen to the side. She sighed, closing her eyes for a few moments as she seemed to regain her composure. Then she darted around the console and started for the doors. "Come on." But she stopped just short of the doors and whirled around. "Oh, wait a minute. Not you two," she said, gesturing to O'Donnell and I.

"What, why?" I asked.

"Someone needs to stay here and mind the shop. What if Clara calls?"

O'Donnell scoffed. "The last bloke that said something like that to me got dangled out of a window."

Bennett glanced at the Doctor, then at O'Donnell. "Maybe the Doctor's right. Maybe it's best if you both stay here."

"Never going to happen! Seriously, have you two met me?"

She started to push past the two, but the Doctor put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Look, it's going to be very dangerous out there. I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but I don't want either of you getting hurt."

"So why is Bennett going with you?"

"Will you just trust me?"

"I'm not just going to stand around here, doing absolutely nothing, while you two go out on an adventure to save everyone! And I know Diana won't either."

The Doctor set her jaw and loomed over O'Donnell, her eyes hard. "Perhaps you haven't noticed, but Diana isn't up for much adventuring lately. She isn't the woman you read about in all your military files. She's much younger, much more inexperienced, and much, much more afraid. I'm trying to protect her and this is the only way I know how. So please. Just stay here with her."

She released her grip on O'Donnell's arm and stepped back, her eyes focused on the floor. I reached up to grab my necklace, fishing it out from under my shirt and clasping it tightly in my hand. I staggered back a few steps as I tried to process everything the Doctor had said.

"Diana." I hesitantly met the Time Lady's gaze. "I'm sorry."

I shook my head, reaching out for the railing with my free hand. "I don't understand."

"I know. But… just promise me that you'll stay in here until we come back. The TARDIS will keep you both safe."

O'Donnell put a hand on my back. "Come on," she said. "Why don't we sit down?" She looked back at the Doctor. "You'd better explain yourself when you come back."

"I will."

The doors had barely shut behind Bennett and the Doctor before O'Donnell guided me to one of the chairs by the console. The TARDIS whirred softly overhead, making O'Donnell glance around the room as she sat down next to me. "She's talking to us, isn't she? She really is sentient," she murmured. "I'd read in one of the older files that she was, but I-I never actually believed it."

"Did you read about me?" I questioned.

"What?"

I rubbed my thumb across the pendant around my neck. "In your files. The ones with Martha and Amy and Rose and the TARDIS. Did you read about me in them?"

"Yes. You're in all of them."

"And the Doctor?"

O'Donnell laughed softly. "Wherever the Doctor goes, you seem to follow. And we had plenty of files on the two of you." I slumped in my seat and stared up at the ceiling, watching the top of the console spin slowly, wondering what each Gallifreyan symbol meant as they trailed in and out of view. "You okay?"

I nodded. "Just thinking."

A loud roar sounded then, rattling the doors and echoing through the room. O'Donnell and I sat up a little straighter, looking hesitantly at one another. "What was that?" she asked.

I looked back at the door and felt my heart drop to my stomach when the TARDIS whirred nervously. "I can't remember," I said. "It's just out of reach. But it's not good."

A few seconds later, another roar sounded, this time much closer to the ship and much louder. The doors rattled again and O'Donnell stood. She hurried up the ramp and made sure the lock was in place before stepping back a few paces.

I got up and placed a hand on the console. The scanner crackled to life and a grainy image of the area immediately outside the doors appeared. "O'Donnell, look!" She skidded around the console and grabbed hold of the screen. "It's the Fisher King."

"What? That thing in the sheet? I thought it was dead!"The doors jolted as the scanner showed the Fisher King banging on them. "He's trying to get in."

"Nothing can get through those doors," I told her. "Not even the hordes of Genghis Khan and, believe me, they've tried."

"Are you sure?"

The creature delivered another blow to the doors and they rattled again. The TARDIS wheezed angrily and the Fisher King paused, eyeing the ship with his arm raised midair. He roared again, loud enough the O'Donnell and I were forced to cover our ears, and beat his enormous arm against the doors.

Something on the screen caught my eye and I smacked O'Donnell in the arm. "Look. Look!" I shouted, jamming my finger against the scanner. In the corner of the screen I could see the Doctor and Bennett, their faces peering around the edge of the building.

The Doctor stepped out, waving her arms and shouting. The creature stopped and turned to face her, its frustrated grumble drifting through the doors. It stepped forward then, the TARDIS completely forgotten.

"Oh my god," O'Donnell breathed. "It's gonna kill him. We have to do something!"

She ran frantically around the room, searching for something. Finally she stopped, reaching under the console for a fire extinguisher. Then she ran for the doors and unlocked before I could do anything to stop her.

Images of her bloodied dead body flashed across my mind's eye and I stumbled after her. "O'Donnell, wait!" I screamed.

"Don't you dare, you big bloody bastard!" she shouted before beating the creature's spine with it.

The Fisher King howled in pain as she managed to hit it twice in quick succession. Then it turned and smacked her across the chest, her body flying several yards before landing in the grass. Bennett cried out and sprinted after her, kneeling by her side as he checked her injuries. I was standing in the open doorway, frozen in shock as the Fisher King advanced on me.

"Diana, get inside!" the Doctor shouted. "Go!"

I wanted to run. I wanted to hide, to get as far away from the creature as possible. I wanted to wake up from the nightmare I was immersed in and steal a hug from my mother. But my legs refused to move and even as the Fisher King drew closer, I was too terrified to do more than just breathe. I could see every tube running out of the creature's face, the gaping hole that served as its mouth, and the claws stretching out from its hands, yet still I couldn't move.

The creature stopped, his left arm extended towards me with a gun pointed at my head. He sniffed, then lowered his arm and marched towards Bennett and O'Donnell. My legs wobbled and gave out, and I collapsed. I watched as the Doctor sprinted after the Fisher King and knocked it to the ground, her body sprawled out beside him. The gun flew out of its hand and landed at O'Donnell's feet. Bennett scrambled to grab the gun groaned as he managed to pick it up.

A shot echoed throughout the town and blood spattered across the grass. My head started pounding, the world around me started spinning, and then everything went black.

* * *

When I woke up, I could hear gentle, steady beeping somewhere above me. The lights overhead were dimmed slightly and I blinked, trying to clear the sleep from my eyes. Then I remembered what had happened before I passed out and I sat up with a gasp.

I was on a bed with white sheets and a gray blanket draped over my legs. Next to me was an identical bed with O'Donnell fast asleep below the covers. Her arms rested on either side of her torso with an IV sticking out of the back of her hand. I quickly looked away, trying to erase the image of the needle stuck under her skin. I glanced at her face and the machines placed around her bedside; she looked as if she was in a hospital.

An EKG machine stood just behind her IV rack, the source of the beeping I had woken to. That meant she was alive. Throwing my legs over the side of the bed, I slid to the ground and hissed when my bare feet touched cool tile. It was then that I spotted Bennett fast asleep in a chair on the opposite side of O'Donnell's bed. He had fallen asleep with his head on the edge of her bed and his hand clasping hers.

I'd made it halfway across the room when the door opened and the Doctor stepped inside. I froze mid step, feeling as if I'd been caught stealing cookies from a cookie jar, as the Doctor stared silently at me. She smiled and I could see the relief written plainly across her face. The door shut with a light click as the Time Lady approached me.

"You're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Fine."

She glanced at the other bed. "I see O'Donnell's alright." Her sonic shades were cupped in her hands and I could see the Doctor's fingers trembling slightly as she fiddled halfheartedly with them. "I, um, I'm sorry I had to leave you in here. I had to help the others. The ghosts are trapped in the Faraday cage now."

"Is everyone okay?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes. They're waiting in the bridge for me, but I had to check on you before I did anything else."

The doors swung open then and Clara burst through the doorway. "Where is she?" she demanded. Her eyes landed on me and, with a sob of relief, she raced across the room and wrapped her arms around me. "You're alright," she breathed into my hair. "I was so worried."

I awkwardly patted her on the back, shooting the Doctor a confused look. "Um, yeah. I-I'm fine," I stammered.

"I thought- I thought I might not see you again. When that ghost appeared, I was so scared." She pulled back and trailed her fingers across my face, brushing away a few stray pieces of hair. "But you're here, you're okay."

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" I asked.

Her brows furrowing together, Clara looked over her shoulder at the Doctor. "You didn't tell her the truth?"

"Well I didn't have a lot of spare time to do that, now did I?"

I pulled out of Clara's grasp and glanced skeptically between the two women. "Tell me what? What's the truth?"

"The ghost wasn't me," the Doctor said. She quickly avoided mine and Clara's eyes for her sonic sunglasses instead. "The, uh, the ghost was you. That's why I wouldn't let you or the others see. I didn't want to frighten you."

" _What?_ "

"You were never in any real danger, Diana. I didn't realize it at the time because I-I-I was so focused on the thought that I might lose you, but you never saw the writing in the ship. The Fisher King and the ghosts were only killing people who had seen the writing, but you never did. Once I realized that, Bennett and I came back to the TARDIS but the Fisher King was already here and, well, you know the rest."

"So it never would have killed me?" I said.

The Doctor shook her head. "No."

"Then why did it come after me? I thought I was going to die."

"It must have only realized you hadn't seen the writing right before it killed you. Without the writing, you're completely useless. So it went after O'Donnell because she was hurt. She would've been an easy kill."

"Doctor!" Clara scolded.

"What? It's true!" she replied.

" _No._ " Clara pointed to something behind the Time Lady: O'Donnell, wide awake and watching us with a pained smile. "See?"

O'Donnell waved her hand dismissively and managed to laugh with only a tiny wince. " 's alright. I know I'm lucky to be alive. If it wasn't for this lump," she said as she patted Bennett on the back, "I probably wouldn't be here. And you too, Doctor."

The Doctor smiled. "How're you feeling?" she asked, checking the EKG and IV after briefly scanning her with the sonic shades.

"Well, I feel like a monstrous alien from outer space whacked me in the chest. But other than that, y'know, I'm feeling great."

"You'll live, luckily for you. All that's left is for me to erase the writing from yours and Bennett's memory. Once that's taken care of, the three of us will be on our way."

O'Donnell hummed softly. "As if you were never here."

"Something like that, yeah."

And so, hardly two minutes later, Bennett and O'Donnell's memories were fixed and we were ready to leave. "Now, once the ship dematerializes, it will leave the two of you behind. Your bed and little machines will stay with you, free of charge," the Doctor explained. "And UNIT will be able to take care of you after that."

Bennett rubbed the sleep from his eyes under his glasses. "Thank you," he said. "For looking after her."

" _Bennett_ ," O'Donnell groaned. "I can say thank you on my own."

He smiled. "I know. But I needed to say it, too."

"You're both very welcome," the Doctor replied. She held out her hand to Clara with a grin. "Shall we go?"

"Oh, could I speak to Diana for a sec before you all go?" O'Donnell asked.

Clara and the Doctor glanced at each other before nodding. "Of course," Clara said. "Just come back to the console room when you're done."

Once the pair left, O'Donnell reached out for me, wiggling her fingers while she waited for me to take her hand. I smiled at her, a little confused as to why she wanted to talk. "I just wanted to tell you something. I saw how scared you were today. The girl I read about in my files, the one who fought off monsters and saved the day? I know she's in there somewhere. And if it takes you ten years to become that girl, that's okay. Being brave is something you have to learn sometimes. But I know she's in there, waiting for you.

"Oh, and one more thing." She looked at Bennett and squeezed his hand. "Clara and the Doctor? They love you. And if you love them at all, in any way, you need to tell them. Don't wait til you're about to die to tell them how you feel. Okay?"

I nodded. "Okay."

O'Donnell grinned. "Atta girl. We'll see you around, right?"

The TARDIS hummed softly and I nodded again. "I think so. Maybe. Take care of yourself."

* * *

"So what will UNIT do with the ghosts?" Clara asked, leaning back against the console as the ship wheezed.

The Doctor approached her and pressed a feather light kiss to her forehead. "Drag the cage into space, away from the Earth's magnetic field. With nothing to sustain them, the ghosts will eventually fade away," she explained, fiddling with a few controls on the console.

"Here's what I don't understand. You _did_ change the future. You stopped the Fisher King from returning with that fake ghost of Diana you created."

"The Fisher King had been dead for a hundred and fifty years before we even got here. But once I went back, I became part of events. But here's the thing. The messages Diana's ghost gave, they weren't for you, they were for me. That list of names. Everyone after you and Diana was random, but the both of you being the next two names, _that's_ what made me confront the Fisher King."

"And saying the chamber will open?"

"That was me using Diana's ghost to tell me to get inside and when to set it for, since the TARDIS wouldn't take me to the bridge because it was too close to the ghosts."

Clara nodded with a smile. "Smart."

"Mm. Except that's not why I said them."

"How do you mean?" Clara asked, her brows furrowed as the Doctor circled round the console.

"I programmed my ghost to say them because that's what my ghost had said. And the only reason I created my ghost hologram in the first place was because I saw it here. I was reverse engineering the narrative."

Clara shrugged. "Okay, that's still pretty smart."

"You do not understand," the Doctor said with a smile. "When did I first have those ideas, Clara?"

"Well, it must have been- _Oh._ " She grinned. "Wow."

The Doctor hummed. "Exactly. Who composed Beethoven's Fifth?"

Clara tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

A smile flitted across the Time Lady's face. "So there's this woman and she has a time machine. Up and down history she goes, zip zip zip zip zip, always getting into scrapes." She started up the stairs leading to the second floor, rummaging through a stack of old vinyls. "Another thing she has is a passion for the works of Ludwig van Beethoven." She waved a vinyl labelled 'Beethoven's 5th' at us and then set it down. She paced across the walkway, circling all the way to the opposite end of the room, passing numerous bookcases and a chalkboard. "And one day she thinks, what's the point of having a time machine if you don't get to meet your heroes? So off she goes to eighteenth century Germany. But she can't find Beethoven anywhere. No one's heard of him, not even his family have any idea who the time traveller is talking about." Sitting on a small table was a bust of Beethoven, which she picked up and cradled against her chest. "Beethoven _literally_ doesn't exist." She came back to the main level of the room. "This didn't happen, by the way. I've met Beethoven. Nice chap. Very intense. Loved an arm-wrestle. No, no, this is called the Bootstrap Paradox. Google it."

She started down to the lower level of the room then, the bust of Beethoven still in her arms. Clara grabbed my hand and guided me downstairs. "The time traveller panics," the Doctor continued, setting the bust down on a cushioned footrest with sheet music scattered across it. "She can't bear the thought of a world without the music of Beethoven. Luckily, she brought all of her Beethoven sheet music for Ludwig to sign. So he copies out all the concertos and the symphonies, and _he_ gets them published. He becomes Beethoven. And history continues with barely a feather ruffled." She grabbed an electric guitar from its stand, slipping the strap over her shoulder to situate the instrument as she flipped the amp on and adjusted some of the dials. "But my question is this. Who put those notes and phrases together? Who really composed Beethoven's Fifth?"

The Doctor grinned and winked at Clara and I. With a brush of her fingers on the strings, the beginning notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony sounded through the console room.


	3. Across the Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://thestoryofdianascott.tumblr.com/post/154206590419/maythesestoriesneverend-a-little

Although the Doctor was eager to show off her guitar skills, I found it incredibly difficult to pay her very much attention. She was an excellent player, but my mind was focused on other matters. Any time my eyes closed for more than a moment, I could see the Fisher King advancing on me and prepared to strike me dead.

I sought out the familiar smoothness of my necklace, fiddling with the string before letting it drop on my chest again. Not even my necklace would help qualm my worries. I knew something was wrong. Everything had felt wrong since the moment I first woke in the Drum, but I had pushed all aside as a dream or because we were being attacked. But with a few minutes mostly to myself where I could reflect on everything that happened? Well, that gave my brain free range to point out every horrible thing that could have happened to me.

"Hey, you okay?"

Clara's voice drew me from my thoughts and I stared at her, blinking rapidly as I tried to regain my composure. "What? Yeah, I'm fine," I said quickly.

She briefly squeezed my hand and smiled. "You sure? You've been really quiet ever since we left."

"You look upset," the Doctor noted. "Are you upset?"

I noticed then that she wasn't playing anymore and the guitar simply hung off her shoulder, a little light feedback sounding from the amp. I shook my head, brows furrowed. "No? Why would I be?"

"I think you mean distraught, Doctor," Clara suggested. "What's wrong?"

"I thought I was going to die," I muttered.

Both women looked away guiltily. "I never would have let that happen," the Doctor said seriously. "Neither of us would. It's important you know that."

"No." I clasped my necklace tightly, the semi-sharp points digging into my skin enough to be mildly uncomfortable. "I thought I was going to die," I said again.

"I'm sorry," the Time Lady said. "I never meant for any of this to happen, certainly not for your first time."

I shook my head in frustration. "You don't understand! _I thought I was going to die_. I've had dreams as scary as this before, dreams where I'm being attacked by zombies or I'm falling to my death or I'm in a car crash. And every time, right before I die, I manage to wake myself up. I've always been able to wake myself from a scary dream when I know I'm about to die, but that didn't happen. This whole dream, I haven't been able to wake myself and that's never happened to me before!"

"Diana," the Doctor sighed, "I think maybe it's time I explained." She extended her hand to me with an inviting, yet strained smile. "Come here."

I eyed her hand warily. "Why?"

"I'm not going to bite, not even if you asked me to. Just come here," she teased. I took her hand and found myself being led up to the main level of the console room. The Doctor guided me over to the console, stopping me directly in front of a panel of what looked like squishy gelatin with holes carved into it. "This is the TARDIS's telepathic interface. Anything you think will either show up on the screens or the ship will take you to wherever or whoever you're picturing in your mind."

"Okay…"

The Doctor took both of my hands and placed them on top of the interface; it was cool to the touch, but dry and relatively smooth. She placed her hands over mine and slid our fingers into holes, withdrawing herself once all my fingers were in place. I looked up at her, silently questioning what this was all about.

"Close your eyes," the Time Lady instructed. "Think of your grandmother. Picture her in your mind. Think of the last time you saw her, what she looked like, where she was, what time it was."

"Why?" I asked again.

"Just think of her."

I let out a resigned sigh and shut my eyes, recalling the previous afternoon when I visited her before my work shift started. I pictured sitting down on her mostly red sofa, eating a snack, and talking about the book I had just bought. I could see her perfectly in my mind: her hair loosely curled, glasses perched on the bridge of her nose, worn slippers on her feet, and wearing one of her casual outfits. The TARDIS's groaning broke through my mental image and I opened my eyes to see the time rotor bobbing up and down in front of me, lights flashing as the ship materialized.

The Doctor pulled the scanner over so it was between the two of us. "Beaumont, California," she said with a gesture to the screen.

I pulled my hands out from the interface and gaped at the screen. "That's my city," I gasped. "My mom, my grandma, we all live here. How-?"

"Ye of little faith." The Doctor smiled, but there was something sad in her eyes that I couldn't understand. "Would you like to see the information the TARDIS has on your grandmother?"

"Um, sure?"

With just the press of a few buttons, the image of my hometown disappeared and a page of writing appeared instead. In the top left corner was a picture of my grandmother, looking almost exactly as she had the last time I saw her. Her name was printed in all capital letters next to the photograph with a list of her personal details below. Her birthday, age, and name were all normal, but I noticed something odd under the 'spouse' category.

"It says she's married. That's not right. She divorced her husband years ago." I narrowed my eyes slightly. "Wait. It says her husband's name is Johnathan Masserby. This isn't right at all. Her husband's name was William O'Connor."

"What else?" the Doctor asked.

I stared up at her for a few moments, searching her face for _something_ \- I didn't know what. "No, this is all wrong. This says she only had one child, but she had three. Doctor, what's going on?"

"What do you think?"

"I don't know," I said lowly, "but whatever this is, it's not funny."

"I want you to think of your mother now."

"Why? So you can pull another joke on me?"

The Doctor inhaled sharply, her eyes screwed shut and her mouth set in a firm line. "Diana, I need you to trust me right now. Just think of your mother, alright? Please."

I hesitantly stuck my fingers back into the interface, closing my eyes again and picturing my mother instead. Her image was much clearer than that of my grandmother. I could see her on the sofa with the dog, her feet propped up after a long work day while a football game played on the TV. She was asleep, snoring, with one hand draped over her stomach and the dog curled up in the bend of her knees.

The TARDIS whirred, then groaned, and then stopped. I opened my eyes and looked at the scanner. The words ' _UNABLE TO LOCATE_ ' were scrawled across the screen in black, blocked letters.

"Why can't it find her?" I asked. When nobody answered, I grabbed onto the Doctor's sleeve and turned her towards me. " _Doctor!_ What is going on? Why can't it find my mom?"

The Time Lady said nothing, did nothing. She barely even breathed. Shouldering her aside, I went to the console keyboard and typed my mother's name out: Sofia Scott. Again, the scanner showed no results, the same three words as before blinking before my eyes. I tried her name again. And again. Growling in frustration, I typed out my grandmother's name and began scrolling through the information that popped up.

Everything was wrong. The TARDIS's information said that my grandmother had gotten married to a sailor at the age of twenty one and they had their first child nearly a year later. That child was named Michael Masserby. There was no Sofia, no Samuel, just Michael. I had only ever met my Uncle Michael once.

I typed in my grandfather's name. William O'Connor existed, but he had never met my grandmother. He had married some girl four years younger than him who hadn't graduated high school because she got pregnant. They had four children together and after the fourth child left home, he died in a drunk driving accident.

My hands were trembling and my head was pounding. I quickly typed in my father's name and felt relief flood through my body when the scanner said that he existed. He was almost exactly the same as he was back home, married to the same woman, living in the same city, and working at a nearly identical job.

I looked back at the Doctor. "What's going on?"

She smiled sadly again. "I think you know, Diana."

"Why can't I find my mom?"

"She doesn't exist in this universe."

I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. "Don't say that. Don't say that."

"Things are different here, Diana. Your mother was never born, so she never met your father, so _you_ were never born."

"Doctor, stop," Clara said, resting a hand on the Time Lady's arm. "You're scaring her."

"Clara, how else am I supposed to tell her?"

I looked back at the scanner where my father smiled at me. The longer I looked at his picture, the less he looked like himself. I could see parts of his face that didn't seem right or they weren't how I remembered.

"Diana, I know this is… impossible and scary, but you need to understand what's going on."

"No," I snapped. "Stop."

"Diana-"

"Stop. Shut up. Just stop talking." I typed out the name of one of my best friends, waiting anxiously while the TARDIS loaded her results. "No. No, god, please, not her." The words ' _UNABLE TO LOCATE_ ' flashed at me again and I felt tears prick at my eyes. I rapidly typed out the name of my other friend, her twin, and felt something inside me shatter when the same result appeared. " _No._ "

Clara reached out to touch my arm, but I wrenched away from her with a sob. "No, this- this is just a dream. A vivid dream," I said to myself.

"Diana, it's not," Clara said.

"I've had a dream like this before. A long time ago. I dreamed that my best friends died. It was so vivid that I thought it was real. That's all this is." I cupped my necklace in my hand, holding it close to my heart as I stared absently at the scanner. "It's just a dream."

The Doctor put an arm around Clara's shoulders as she gazed sadly at me. They both looked so impossibly sad. "This isn't a joke. We would never play a prank like this on you. Diana, this is real. I know you've been through enough already and perhaps I didn't go about it the right way, but you need to know what's happened to you."

"Nothing's happened to me! Stop saying things like that," I begged. "Look, maybe I'm sick or-or I'm in a coma or something. I don't know! But there has to be a logical reason, a-a _real_ reason why I can't wake up, why this is all so vivid."

"Diana-"

"No. I know what you're going to say. Don't think I haven't been considering it in the back of my mind this entire time. But it's not possible. It's not possible and it's cliché and I _know_ this is a dream. It's too much like a dream to be anything else, okay? Don't you dare say it's anything other than a dream."

I brushed past the two and started for the doors, my heart pounding with determination. The Doctor called after me, begging me to stop and come back, but I ignored everything she said. I had recognized the block the TARDIS had landed on. I could find my way home, to my house or to my grandma's house, and then everything would be fine. I would be with my family and we'd go back to bickering every afternoon like parents and children do.

As I stepped outside, I felt a wave of warm air blow against my face. Typical Southern California weather, not below freezing and ridiculously cold Scotland weather. The ship had materialized several miles away from my house on the main street in town, right by the library. But as I looked around, I felt a wave of nausea come over me as I began to realize that everything was somehow off.

The buildings were identical, but something about them wasn't the same. The streets were worn and patched up with faded paint, the same streets I had driven on countless times, but they looked wrong. Everything looked the same, yet a dozen differences screamed out at me, telling me that I wasn't in the right place at all.

And no matter what logic dictated or what reasonable excuses my brain created, I still knew why nothing seemed right anymore.

"Diana," the Doctor said behind me, "come back inside."

I stood frozen on the sidewalk, tears welling in my eyes and catching in my eyelashes. A sob caught in my throat and I coughed. The Doctor said my name again and then I felt her hands rest on my shoulders, but I didn't pull away.

"Come on," she said softly.

I vaguely remember being led back inside and sitting down. Both Clara and the Doctor tried talking to me, but I couldn't even hear them. My entire world felt like it was crumbling and falling apart. In a way, it already had.

"I want to go home," I croaked.

Clara rested a hand on my knee, drawing me partially from my thoughts, and I realized that she was kneeling in front of me. "What do you need?"

Tears spilled down my cheeks. "My mom," I sobbed.

She immediately drew me into her arms, resting her cheek against my head as I cried into her shoulder. I slipped off of the chair and fell into heap in front of the schoolteacher, curling in on myself. Clara gently ran a hand through my hair as she whispered comforting nonsense in my ear.

Through my sobs, I heard the TARDIS wheeze and groan. I hiccuped, opening my eyes for a moment to see the time rotor moving and the lights flashing. Clara rubbed my back as she moved to sit next to me, stretching her legs out in front of her. I stared at her plaid skirt, following every crease in the fabric as it draped over her thighs and splayed out onto the grated floor. It suddenly seemed like the most interesting thing in entire world.

I saw her hand creep into view, but I ignored it. She twirled a strand of my hair around her index finger and then tucked it behind my ear. "Di? What are you thinking?" she asked.

A switch in my mind suddenly flipped and I burst into tears again, falling back against the chair as sobs racked through my body. Clara pulled me towards her and pressed her lips to my temple, running her hands over my hair and neck in an attempt to soothe me. A part of me wanted to run far away from both of them so I could cry in solitude, but the other part wanted desperately for someone to take care of me and tell me everything would be okay.

Perhaps Clara could read minds because she enveloped me in a warm, tight hug and whispered in my ear that everything would be okay. I buried my face in her shoulder as the ship wheezed again and a gentle thud sounded shortly after. I felt Clara move her head to look past me, at the Doctor most likely.

"Where are we?"

"Rosakur. About a million billion lightyears away from Earth, more or less." The Doctor's voice cracked on the last few words. I looked up and, through the tears blurring my vision, I saw her leaning against the console and pointedly looking away from me. She coughed. "I thought perhaps a change of scenery might help."

Clara played with the ends of my hair. "Do you want to go outside?" she wondered.

I sniffled and rubbed my cheek against her shoulder, suddenly feeling very self conscious. I sat up quickly and wiped the tears off my cheeks with the back of my hand. I couldn't look at either of them; I felt too ashamed. But I knew I didn't want to be stuck in the TARDIS.

"Yeah," I said as I got to my feet. I made a beeline for the doors and hurried outside without a second thought. A blast of cool air blew in my face as I stepped onto soft, grassy ground and I realized then that I hadn't put any shoes on after I woke up. I looked up at the sky and felt my breath catch in my throat. "Woah."

The sky was a pale shade of pink dusted with little white clouds and two yellow, bright suns. A bird of some kind flew overhead, its wingspan easily equal to my height, and swooped into a grove of trees several yards away at the base of a hill. The hill that the TARDIS had landed on, more specifically. And just beyond the grove was an endless stretch of dark blue water.

"Rosakur is known for two things," said the Doctor as she stood in the open doorway. "Its rose pink sky and its great, singular ocean that never ventures deeper than about ten feet. I thought you might appreciate coming here."

I managed to spare the Time Lady a glance, but couldn't say anything. She looked at me for a moment and then gestured to the planet with a nod of her head. "You can stay out here as long as you want. We won't follow you. Come back when you're ready." Then she went back inside and closed one of the doors behind her.

I started down the hill, letting the grass crumple under my feet and brush against my ankles. The breeze was light and cool, not enough to make me shiver but enough to equal out the heat from the two suns partway to the center of the sky. A bird called from somewhere in the grove and its song was sweeter than any I had heard on Earth. The tree leaves rustled in the breeze and as the sunlight shimmered on them, I noticed that they weren't green but a dark teal.

The grove was small and smelled of cinnamon. Dead leaves were scattered across the ground amongst twigs and fallen trees. I could see through the trees to where the water met the land in a black sandy beach, not unlike one I had visited several years ago in New Zealand. When I stepped into the grove, the leaves crunched under my feet and the twigs snapped but nothing scraped or pierced my skin like I had anticipated. I made my way through the grove, gazing at the treetops and listening to the leaves whisper as the birds chirped.

There was no trail that led to the beach, just a slow progression from grass to dirt to sand. The sand only reached a few feet out from the edge of the grove and it was still slightly damp. A gentle wave rolled onto the beach and tickled my toes, the water sparkling with grains of sand as it retreated. I sighed as the water washed farther up my feet, closing my eyes and focusing solely on the sound of the waves and the birds and feel of the wind in my hair.

* * *

It was at least an hour later when I returned to the TARDIS, if the moving of the twin suns were anything like Earth's sun. My skirt was still slightly wet after I had trailed into the water up to my thighs and then laid down on the sand to dry. And I was still reeling from the realization of exactly where I was, but the sea air and grove of cinnamon trees had cleared my mind.

When I stepped inside the ship, the doors closed behind me and the TARDIS hummed softly. Neither Clara nor the Doctor were in sight, so I assumed I had the room to myself. I walked over to the console and smiled despite myself when the lights blinked and the ship whirred at me. I moved to the second level of the room, curious to see what books the Doctor had on display. But even with countless books to distract me, my mind kept returning to the telepathic interface on the console. There was one person I hadn't looked up before.

I hurried down the steps, my feet patting softly on the grating. My hands hovered over the interface as I considered what I might find if the TARDIS took me where I wanted to go. Instead, I moved to the keyboard and typed out a name: Cassandra Tangotango Mészöly.

The scanner was blank for a few seconds until a picture appeared next to the name I had written. Fresh tears welled in my eyes and I let out a sob of relief as I saw the face of my friend and ex-partner, a face I hadn't seen in over a year. They were born in the same city and on the same day, to the same parents, and in the same home that I remembered. But instead of having a younger sister, they had a fraternal twin brother: Hemi Roland Mészöly. Both siblings had the same upbringing that my Cassandra had, going to the same schools and being in the same kapa haka group. Cassandra was genderfluid, just like I remembered, and Hemi was pan like my Cassandra's little sister.

I rushed to the telepathic interface and slid my fingers in, picturing this Cassandra in my mind. The ship wheezed and dematerialized a few seconds later. I looked at the scanner, staring only at the picture of the person I had fallen in love with years ago. The TARDIS landed with a jolt and a final wheeze. I ripped my hands away and bolted for the doors, ripping them open and stumbling outside.

I was in Te Aroha, New Zealand, a place I had only visited once. The TARDIS had parked on a city block right next to a chip shop. Through the window, I could see Cassandra and their brother with a third person standing next to them. I pushed open the door, a smile on my face as I started towards them, but I stopped when I saw Cassandra holding hands with the stranger. It was a girl with waist length dark hair and light brown skin, of a similar build to myself and about my height.

"What's taking so long?" Cassandra snapped at one of the workers. "I'm kind of busy."

I stared incredulously at them. They were never rude to anybody, let alone food service workers. Cassandra was always polite to workers.

One of the workers hurried over to the counter with a nervous smile. "I'm so sorry. Here's your order. Is there anything else I can get for you?"

"No, not if it's going to take another ten fucking minutes."

The worker tried to continue smiling. "Alright. Well have a nice day," she said.

Hemi grabbed the chips and started for the door, shouldering rudely past me when I was too stunned to move out of the way. Cassandra met my eyes and didn't even blink when they saw me. They looked me up and down once, flashed me a patronizing smile, and left with the other girl holding tightly to their hand.

The worker at the counter smiled tiredly at me. "Can I help you, miss?"

I stammered wordlessly for a few seconds. "A-Are they always like that?" I asked, not caring that my American accent and lack of shoes made me stick out like a sore thumb.

The worker nodded. "I'm afraid so. Is there anything I can get you?"

"I-I…" I shook my head. "No, I'm sorry. I don't have any money."

I stepped out of the shop in a daze, replaying the scene over and over in my mind. I pushed the TARDIS door open and stepped inside, immediately met with Clara and the Doctor waiting for my by the console. The Doctor frowned when she spotted me.

"What's wrong?" Clara asked as I sat down.

"They didn't even recognize me," I said, holding onto my necklace.

"Who, them?" the Doctor wondered, pointing to the scanner.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Who are they?"

I took a shaky breath as tears welled up in my eyes again, spreading to my eyelashes and sticking to my glasses. I tugged lightly on my necklace and choked back a sob. "They gave me this necklace. In Māori culture, pounamu- greenstone, it's sacred. You give it to loved ones and friends as a gift and it's supposed to mean something. I haven't taken this necklace off since they gave it to me and… they didn't even know who I was. They looked right through me." I looked up and my gaze flickered between Clara and the Time Lady. "That wasn't my Cassandra. They were horrible."

Clara rested a hand on my shoulder and I resisted the urge to shake it off. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Can we go back to-to that planet?" I asked. "I don't want to be here right now."

Clara smiled. "Of course."

The Doctor typed something out on the keyboard and pulled on a lever. The ship dematerialized and I heaved a sigh of relief. I looked down at my necklace, tracing my thumb over the familiar shape and wishing more than I had ever wished for anything that I was back home where everything was right and normal.

"We're back," the Doctor said after the TARDIS landed.

"Thanks," I muttered halfheartedly.

I was through the doors in a flash, racing down the hill and into the grove in a matter of seconds. Birds cawed and flew away as I trampled through the trees. I ran to the water, splashing up to my hips and then halting. I looked up at the sky where the twin suns shone down on me. Was it the same day, the same hour? I grabbed hold of my necklace and sunk below the water, squeezing my eyes shut and blocking out the rest of the world, the rest of the universe. I screamed.

* * *

I rolled onto my side and blinked wearily for a few seconds, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dim light shining through my window. I sat up, looked around, and fell onto my back again, staring emptily at the ceiling. A gentle whirring noise sounded from the ceiling.

"Go away," I mumbled.

I leaned over and grabbed my glasses off the bedside table, then sat up and leaned back against the headboard. My room was mostly bare, only decorated with a bed, a desk beneath the window, a few bookcases, and a closet. There was a lamp on the desk with a black shade with no opening on the top, just pinpricked all over in the shape of constellations. My bedsheets were a pale turquoise and the bookcases were white, balancing nicely with the cream colored walls.

"At least this room isn't a total fucking disaster," I sighed. "Not like…" _Not like my old room._

Sliding out of bed, I shuffled over to the closet and pulled out some clean clothes. I took my glasses off and tossed them onto my bed, then headed into the hallway. The bathroom was just opposite my room, the door just a plain white door with white trim. I looked back at the bedroom door and sighed. White with a silver handle and my name written in silver, cursive letters.

I took very long, steaming hot shower. Some of the pale blue coloring in my hair washed out with shampoo. I considered driving to the local beauty parlor for some more hair dye and bleach until I remembered where I was. Then I grabbed the soap and started cleaning my face. _Maybe the TARDIS has some hair dye_ , I thought. _I've been meaning to change the color. Purple would be nice._

After I dried off and got dressed, I blow dried my hair and padded back into the hallway barefoot. I considered just going into my room and not coming out again, but there were only so many books and no food. I grabbed my glasses and map, and started for the console room.

 _The Doctor doesn't have very nice handwriting_ , I noted. She had given me the map after showing me to my room. According to her, the TARDIS often moved rooms around when people got lost but hardly ever any other time. The map showed the way from the console room to the wardrobe, kitchen, library, mine, Clara's, and the Doctor's rooms, and to the swimming pool. "I thought I should put down the most important places," she had told me.

My stomach rumbled and I quickly located the kitchen. _Wonder what time it is. How does that even work? My internal time schedule is different from Clara's and the Doctor's. Do I just guess? Should I get a watch? Would that even work? Don't certain things not work inside the TARDIS, like guns?_

The kitchen was very pretty. The walls were painted a pale sunflower yellow and accented with white cupboards and appliances. There weren't any windows, but there was a painting above the sink of a grassy field and a mildly cloudy sky. I folded the map up and stuck it in the back pocket of my jeans, then started searching the refrigerator for something appetizing. A few minutes later, I was leaning against the kitchen counter munching on cereal while I waited for my bagel to finish toasting.

I had barely taken my first bite of buttered bagel when the Doctor appeared in the doorway. "Diana!" she exclaimed.

I half choked on my food. "Hi," I said after swallowing.

"Sorry, I know you probably wanted some time to yourself. I was getting very fidgety just sitting in my room and I wanted to check on you, make sure you were alright." She glanced at the empty bowl behind me and then at the bagel in my hand. "I see you found food."

"Uh, yeah. That's okay, right?"

"Of course! This is your kitchen too, you know," she said. I noticed then that she had one hand hidden behind her back. "I, er, I actually wanted to-to give you something, if that's alright. The TARDIS and I worked on this while you were asleep."

I set the bagel down on the counter and wiped my hands on my pants. "You made something? For me?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yes. I thought- well, _we_ thought that these might help you." She stepped forward and set a few things down on the kitchen table. There was a set of glasses identical to mine, a very fancy looking cell phone, and a book that looked remarkably like River Song's diary. "The TARDIS made this herself," she said as she picked up the phone. "It's made from a special type of glass found on the planet Zirkam. It's unbreakable by just about anything, except for lasers. It's got my number, Clara's number, and a few other people you've yet to meet. This way if you ever get lost and you need help, you won't be alone."

"Thank you. That's really nice of you. You didn't have to do that," I said.

"Of course I did." The Doctor extended the phone to me. "It's just like Clara's phone, apparently. I think she called it an iPhone?"

I turned the phone over in my hand and then quickly slipped it into my pocket when the Doctor picked up the book. She looked at it for a few seconds and then handed it to me. "The TARDIS made this for you, as well. It's a journal. Since you and I end up going on a number of adventures, I suppose this is something you'll need," she sighed.

"And this," she said, picking up the glasses, "this is what _I_ made for you. Sonic shades. Except, well they're not always shades. They're sonic glasses that can turn into shades if you need them to."

"What, like your glasses?"

The Doctor grinned. "Exactly like them! All the functions of your basic sonic screwdriver tucked inside a pair of normal looking glasses. Oh, and they can access the wifi so you can go on the internet without your phone if you need to."

I titled my head to the side, repressing the urge to laugh. "Is that why you seem to know everything? Do you just look things up as you go?"

The Doctor scoffed, brushing my comment aside with a wave of her hand. "I would- I would never stoop so low," she said casually. "I'm just naturally intelligent."

The TARDIS made a noise that sounded more like laughter than just whirring.

"On, and your phone and glasses are linked. Sort of like bluetooth, I suppose. Only, not." She shook her head. "Your phone is also linked to your internal clock. The TARDIS started scanning you the minute you appeared" - she winced at the word, but continued anyways - "and so your phone will be able to tell you what time it is as if you were still on Earth and had never time travelled at all."

I raised my eyebrows as the Doctor handed the glasses to me. "Wow. You thought of everything, didn't you?" I said as I switched the glasses.

"Actually you were the one who suggested it."

I paused mid motion, the glasses halfway tucked behind my ears. "No, I don't think I've ever suggested anything like this."

The Time Lady shrugged and glanced away, lightly scratching her cheek. "Well, you gave me the idea, so to speak. But that's not important." She smiled excitedly. "Do you like them?"

"The glasses?"

"Everything."

I pushed the glasses up my nose and they beeped softly. The lenses turned black and I jumped in surprise. "Woah! They're sunglasses!"

"Touching the bridge makes them switch to shades or just regular lenses." She skirted around the table and moved to stand in front of me. "If you touch them here," she said, pressing a finger to part where the frames met the metal that hooked over my ears, "and think about what you want to do, they go sonic. So they're also a bit telepathic."

"So they work like your screwdriver?"

"Mm hm." She stepped back then, her hands gesturing as she talked. "For example, you need to fix a bulb that went out. You just look at the bulb, hold the glasses the right way, and look at the bulb, it'll get fixed just like that!" she said, adding a snap at the end for effect.

I pressed the bridge of the glasses and switched them black to regular lenses. "These are- They're amazing. Thank you."

The Doctor shoved her hands into her pockets and shrugged. "It's nothing. I wanted to help you, Diana. I know this universe isn't your home and I know you probably don't want to talk about it right now, but these things will help you. They'll make things easier for you."

"You didn't have to go through so much trouble," I said as I ran my hands along the journal. Its cover was textured into little boxes with ridges around them, like the TARDIS doors were. "But still. Thank you."

"Of course."

I turned around to grab my bagel and bowl, trying to ignore the awkward silence floating between us. I set the bowl in the sink and ran some water to rinse it out, casually munching on the bagel while I waited. My throat went dry suddenly and my last bite of food stuck in my throat as a sharp pain ran from my chest down my limbs. The bagel fell into the sink and I lurched forward as my muscles seized up.

"Doctor!" I felt her hand rest between my shoulder blades as I somehow managed to swallow my food. "I-I-I can't move," I stammered. "My muscles are cramping or something."

"It's okay. You're going to be okay."

I groaned, my eyes squeezing shut as a vein in my temple started pulsating and my lungs constricted painfully. "What's happening?"

"You're fading."

I managed to turn my head so our eyes met. "What?"

"I'm sorry," she said as her eyes welled with unshed tears. "I thought you had more time. I was going to tell you-"

"Tell me _what?_ " I shrieked.

"You're time jumping. I'm sorry! There's nothing I can do to stop it. But wherever you go, I'll be there, Diana." Her hand cupped my cheek. "I'll find you. I promise."

The Doctor's face began to fade away like late morning mist. Her body and the entire kitchen disappeared and faded into the same swirling vortex that had taken me to the lake. Suddenly, I was free falling as golden tendrils of light wrapped themselves around my body. I was still holding onto the journal and my old glasses, but then my body was jerked to the side and the glasses were ripped from my fingers. Lightning crackled around me and then, I fell hard onto a patch of grass.

My vision was a little blurry for a second and my head had already started aching. I sat up, moaning about the ache in my bones, and nearly had a heart attack when a person ran over to me and knelt at my side. It was a woman with dark black skin, a semi shaved head, and a leather jacket. She had big, dark brown eyes and incredibly long lashes.

"Diana," she breathed. "Are you alright?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a lot of fun to write. Now all the people Di mentioned as being either her friends or family are actually based on real people in my life. Di's grandma, for example, is based off of my grandma and this was my way of giving her a better life than the one she has. And Cassandra is based on my real life partner, who is also named Cassandra and is partially Māori & Hungarian.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you guys liked this chapter and don't forget to leave a review telling me what you thought! As for the next chapter, here's a sneak peak. It's called 'The Beast of Babylon'!


	4. The Beast of Babylon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's aesthetic:  
> https://thestoryofdianascott.tumblr.com/post/154206638099/maythesestoriesneverend-the-aestheticmoodboard

_Lightning crackled around me and then, I fell hard onto a patch of grass._

_My vision was a little blurry for a second and my head had already started aching. I sat up, moaning about the ache in my bones, and nearly had a heart attack when a person ran over to me and knelt at my side. It was a woman with dark black skin, a semi shaved head, and a leather jacket. She had big, dark brown eyes and incredibly long lashes._

_"Diana," she breathed. "Are you alright?"_

I nodded once, cautiously eyeing the woman who was much too close for comfort. "Who are you?" I asked.

My words obviously hurt her because she visibly flinched and looked away for a moment. "It's- It's me. The Doctor." She met my eyes again and smiled unconvincingly. "I take it you're still new here, then?"

 _Of course_ , I thought, mentally smacking myself in the head. _Leather jacket, Northern accent? Of course it's the Doctor._ "Yeah. Um, sorry, I just didn't recognize you," I said.

"That's alright, love," she laughed. It wasn't a real laugh. She jumped to her feet and extended her hand to me, helping me up. "Now, I want you to go back to the TARDIS."

I held the journal to my chest, shivering a little when a cold breeze drifted between us. "Why? Where is it?"

"It's just over there," she said, pointing behind her to where the ship was parked under a tree. It was standing at the edge of a lake where, far on the opposite shore, a city with sparkling white skyscrapers stood. "I want you to go inside and stay there until I come back."

"Why?" I repeated. "Is something wrong?"

The Doctor shook her head and smiled again, the turn of her lips a little more genuine than before. "No, but there's going to be an attack on this city any second now and I don't want you getting hurt. Please, just go inside. I'll come back for you."

"Okay," I answered. "I will."

"Thank you." She leaned closer to me, kissed the crown of my head, and then ran off, shouting over her shoulder, "I'll be back!"

I watched as the Time Lady practically sprinted across the grass, gradually making her way to the city. There was a small crowd of people gathered there, some of them sitting under trees or on flat ground, but they were so far away that I couldn't see very much. I turned back to the TARDIS and looked at her for a moment. How was I going to get in without the Doctor or a key? I looked at the opposite shore of the lake and I thought I could see the Doctor closing in on the group, but I couldn't be sure.

Something in my back pocket dinged and I started, looking around frantically for the source of the sound. Then I realized that the sound was coming from the phone in my pocket. _Stupid._ I pulled the phone out and pressed the button at the bottom of the screen. A swipe of my finger unlocked the screen and showed me a home page with several apps, one of them being the message app with a little number one at the top.

The app opened up to show me that I had received a new text message from a contact labeled 'Idris'. The message read: ' _Try snapping._ ' I looked back at the TARDIS, recognizing the name as that of the human woman whose body she had possessed many years ago. I walked over to the ship and stared up at her, studying the dark blue doors and white lettering. Readjusting the phone and journal in my left hand, I raised my other and snapped at her. The doors swung open immediately and for a second, I forgot to breathe.

A chill ran down my spine as I stepped, still barefoot, from grass to metal grating. The ship whirred and hummed the moment I entered, the lights brightening to better illuminate the orange coral braces along the walls. The console itself was enormous, stretching up to a ceiling that arched much higher than the other Doctor's had.

My phone dinged again and this time I noticed that it vibrated too. ' _You dropped your map._ ' I whirled around, searching the floor for the map the Doctor had made for me. It was outside, fluttering gently in the breeze and starting to unfold. I scrambled outside and swept it up before the wind could blow it away, quickly refolding it and placing it between a few pages in my journal.

Just then, a scream echoed across the lake and I nearly dropped my things. I started forward a few paces, stepping out from under the tree. On the opposite shore, standing amongst the skyscrapers, were two enormous, shadowy figures. They looked like two men made only out of wind and clouds as leaves and dust blew wildly around them. Their faces were almost terrifying to look: both of them completely identical and both sporting a blank, empty expression. One of them suddenly bent over and picked something up. He looked at the thing in his hand, his expression still void of any feeling or emotion. Something shone brightly in his eyes, but he didn't look away.

Then the two men shouted something incoherent. The light in the one man's hand shone brighter, bright enough that I had to shade my eyes, and then they were both sucked into a tornado that literally appeared out of nowhere. The giant men shouted again and then everything went silent. The tornado evaporated into thin air and then a blast of wind and sound shot across the sky.

The wind knocked me in the chest and threw me to the ground, my phone and journal tumbling down with me. I sat up with a groan, balancing my weight on my elbows, and saw what looked like silver rain falling on the far end of the lake. I gathered my things, checking to make sure the map hadn't flown away when I dropped it, and struggled to my feet.

The TARDIS whirred nervously at me and the light on top flashed twice. I cast the city a final glance before hurrying inside the ship. The doors slammed shut behind me and then the ship wheezed. I fell against the railing, my feet scraping against the grating as she dematerialized. I stumbled over to the jumpseat and dropped my things on one end before sitting down.

With a final groan, the TARDIS let out what almost sounded like a sigh. On the opposite side of the room, somebody coughed and I shot to my feet. "Who's there?" I demanded.

"Diana, it's me," the Doctor said.

I raced around the console to see the Time Lady braced on her hands and knees, coughing and looking slightly charred. "What happened?" I asked.

"Castor and Pollux."

"Who?" The Doctor cleared her throat and struggled to her feet, her legs wobbling slightly. I rushed to her side and grabbed onto her arm to steady her. "Are you okay?"

She smiled and nodded as she gently patted my hands. "I'll live," she teased. She then looked up at the time rotor and frowned. "What happened, old girl? You took your sweet time!"

"What are you talking about?"

"She was supposed to come after me once the orb destroyed Castor and Pollux, but she took her sweet bloody time. I nearly died!"

The TARDIS seemed to laugh at her pilot. I smiled, looking from the console to the Doctor. "Something tells me you might be exaggerating," I chuckled.

The Doctor rolled her eyes as she stepped past me and collapsed on the jumpseat. "Of course you two gang up on me."

"What happened?" I asked again, leaning against the railing that encircled the platform. "Those things, what were they?"

"I thought I told you to wait for me inside?"

"I left my map outside and I had to go get it! Then those things appeared and… exploded? It happened in, like, seconds. It was so fast."

The Doctor ran a hand over her head and exhaled heavily, tilting her head back and stretching out her long legs. She scratched a bit just behind her ear and then jumped up. "I'll explain everything," she said as she started working at the console, "but first I have to find that orb."

I sat down in the Doctor's spot. "What orb?"

"Come here and hold this down for me, will you?"

Heaving myself out of the seat with an annoyed groan, I grabbed hold of the lever the Doctor had pointed out and held it down. She gestured to a flashing button about a foot to my right and I moved to hold it down as well. The TARDIS shuddered and moaned as she dematerialized and then rematerialized a few seconds later. The Doctor was already halfway out the door before I had even taken my hands off the console.

My fingers lingered on the lever for a moment and the device sparked. Something shot up my arm and into my brain, electricity or a current of some other kind, and I yelped. I yanked my hand away and backed up until I hit the railing. My arm and hand felt tingly, so I gently tried to rub some feeling back into my muscles whilst suspiciously side-eyeing the console.

The Doctor came back inside a minute later, her brows furrowed and her mouth pulled into a frown. She walked up to the scanner and typed something out on the keyboard. Some kind of video footage appeared on the screen and started playing, showing a closer view of what had happened during the attack.

The people I had seen from my end of the lake weren't people at all, but aliens of all different kinds. There were humanoids in every color possible, little fuzzy creatures that looked more like large rodents or raccoons, and strange humanoid-crustacean creatures in shades of red, orange, and pink. Through all the aliens, I saw one humanoid that looked incredibly human. It was the Doctor, running across the grass and yelling soundlessly at something in the sky. She pulled something bright and shiny from her pocket and waved it in the air, moments before an enormous hand reached down and grabbed hold of her. A few seconds later, silver rain fell from the sky and dissolved upon touching the ground. But several yards back, under a tree with a picnic half spread out, one of the humanoid-crustacean creatures reached down and picked up a silver orb with its claw.

"That's it," the Doctor said. "She has it."

"She?" I echoed.

"That girl, she found the orb." The Doctor typed something out on the keyboard again and the creature's face was surrounded by a little square. Her face expanded into a minutely grainy image and beside it, a few rows of writing appeared. "There, that's where she lives. There's a little lake by her home. We'll go there and look for her."

"We?"

"Yeah, it's safe this time. Now come back here and help me, love." She pointed at the same lever that had shocked me only a minute ago. "Hold this down for me again. And that switch right next to it, flip it."

Something happened the instant my hands touched the console. Time seemed to slow down and when I looked down at the lever, I somehow knew exactly what it was and what it did. The same with the switch beside it, the flashing button I'd held down before, and all of the other controls on the panel. I pulled my hands away and stared agape at the console, my mind whirring.

"Di, what's wrong?"

I blinked rapidly, shook my head, and looked at the panel again. The knowledge was still there, waiting for me. I glanced at the panel beside it and felt the wheels in my mind start to turn. I stepped to my left and spread my fingers out across the controls.

"Where are you trying to go?" I asked.

The Doctor stammered for a second. "Er, th-the lake. Why-?"

I looked up at the scanner and saw the coordinates typed out in a string of simple black numbers and letters. Below the keyboard were several other boards, each with a block of buttons in different colors. I quickly typed out a number onto the green pad, twisted the dial of the locking-down mechanism through one full rotation, and then pulled on the lever that had originally shocked me, the phase controller.

Once the ship started to dematerialize, I went to the panel on the opposite side of the console and grabbed hold of the helmic regulator, which the Doctor had obviously repaired by turning it into a bike pump. I pushed down slowly and then pulled out, listening to the ship as she took off and trying to feel for any bumps in the ride. The wheezing paused and I raced back to the phase controller and pulled the lever up so the ship would rematerialize.

"How did you-? I thought you couldn't fly her yet?"

"She showed me," I said, stepping back so I could look up at the time rotor. "I mean, she electrocuted my hand to do it, but she showed me how to fly her."

The Doctor laughed. "That was- That was incredible! She hasn't flown this smoothly in years!"

I smiled proudly and held my chin up a little higher than usual. The TARDIS whirred happily and for the first time in a long time, I felt proud of something I'd done. Grabbing my hand, the Doctor pulled me down the ramp and through the doors outside.

It was nighttime, if the multiple moons in the darkened sky were anything to go by. The TARDIS had materialized beneath a large tree, several branches hanging low enough to cover the ship almost entirely. Along the banks of the lake were patches of reeds and tall trees with drooping branches. Little slivers of moonlight trickled through the leaves and danced across the lake surface and when I turned to look at the Doctor, I saw a beam of light illuminating her face. The moonlight shimmered in her eyes and I forgot to breathe.

"I think you might have gotten the timing a bit off, though," she said softly.

"Oh." It was the only thing I could think to say.

The Doctor smiled. "That's alright. We're still on schedule." Her eyes darted across the lake's surface and then narrowed. "There she is. That girl who took the orb."

Several yards away was the humanoid-crustacean that had appeared on the scanner. She was at least a foot taller than the Doctor with four claw-like legs and two arms, one ending in a large claw and another a human-ish hand. A hard, crab-like shell stretched across the lower half of her body, which looked more like the main part of a beetle, whilst her upper half looked more like a human torso. Her face looked mostly human, except for the eight feelers around her very large mouth. Two long antennae sprung out from her shoulder blades, arching forward over her shoulders and then curling up to rest in a curlicue by her eyes. All four of her black, beady little eyes.

"What is she?" I whispered.

The Doctor frowned at me, nudging me in the ribs with her elbow. "Don't be so rude," she scolded. "She's a Karkinian. This is her planet. Now when we go over there, don't stare."

"O-Okay."

We stepped quietly around the lake, my feet starting to tingle as the coolness of the ground soaked through my skin. I kept my gaze on the strange girl, watching her eyes blink in unison as she stared almost longingly at the water. She didn't look sad, but she obviously wasn't happy.

She picked up a pebble with her human hand, running her fingers over the stone before tossing it into the water. The Doctor and I came up behind her then, and I wondered how she hadn't heard us approaching or the TARDIS landing. The Doctor loosened her grip on my hand and moved to stand behind the girl, her other hand resting in her coat pocket.

"I want it back."

The girl didn't move. "What?" she asked.

"You know what."

"How can you be so sure I've got it?" she said, and I noticed that she had a slightly Northern accent like the Doctor's.

The Doctor hummed and lightly nudged a few pebbles around with the toe of her shoe. "You know, when I first saw you I said to myself, here's someone special."

The girl froze and then turned to face us, her eyes flickering between the Doctor and I. The skin above her topmost eyes furrowed together as if she had eyebrows. Perhaps she did. "This thing you're looking for. What is it?" she questioned. "Why should I give it back to you?"

"I can't tell you that. But let's just say that the fate of a planet - an insignificant little planet, but a planet I'm rather fond of - is in your power." _Earth?_ I wondered. "Besides, it's not yours. I lost it in a fight."

The girl grinned and I couldn't help my mouth falling open upon seeing the rows and rows of sharp teeth in her skull. "I saw that," she said. "It didn't look like much of a fight to me. More of a massacre, really. You weren't exactly winning."

The Time lady shrugged. "I had a plan," she mumbled. "It sort of worked."

"And the plan involved the thing you're looking for? Which I'm not going to give to you until you tell me exactly what it is, by the way."

"Then I'll have to make you, won't I?" the Doctor said seriously.

I stared incredulously at the Time Lady, hardly believing she'd resort to threatening an innocent, if not curious, alien girl. The girl smiled at me and her eyes flitted back to rest on the Doctor's face. "Who are you fooling?" she said. The Doctor looked away with another halfhearted shrug, mumbling something incoherent under her breath. "I may not know that much about humanoids, but I can tell that you're not, like, one of the violent ones."

The Doctor grimaced, then attempted a smile. "You're right. I'm not. I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this is my- my friend, Diana."

The girl waved her claw at us. "I'm Ali."

"Pleased to meet you, Ali," said the Doctor.

"Hi," I added.

Ali looked at the Doctor, her four eyes narrowed with her head titled to one side. "You're a trickster, Doctor, not a warrior."

"Right again," the Time Lady laughed. "And something tells me I can't trick you."

She sounded odd, like she felt defeated or worn out. She hadn't sounded like a minute ago.

"No, you can't."

"So it's a stalemate?"

Ali put her hand to a brown pouch that rested at the bottom of her torso. "Let's trade," she suggested.

The Doctor released my hand so she could sit down on a boulder just across from Ali. She propped one foot up on her opposite knee and started pulling her shoes and socks off. _A swim? Right now?_

"I've got the - what do you call it? Our little silver ball that weighs nearly as much as that boulder you're sitting on?"

The Doctor chuckled as she rolled up the legs of her trousers. "Let's call it an orb, shall we?"

Ali nodded, readjusting herself so she was settled on the ground with her legs braced on either side of her. "Alright, _I've_ got the orb,' said Ali. "What can you offer me?"

"What do you want?" the Doctor asked, resting her elbows on her knees.

"Information."

"Go on, then. I'll answer any question you like."

Ali's fingers tapped rhythmically against her claw. "What was that thing?" she said. "That giant thing? Those two giant things?"

I nodded, looking from Ali to the Doctor with my brows raised, saying nothing but obviously as curious as the alien to know what was going on. The Doctor avoided both of us and simply stared at a point on the ground between her bare feet. She stayed quiet for a minute or two as the wheels in her mind began to turn.

"He- … It," she said, sighing as she tried to find the proper words, "is a Starman. A star eater. He can travel through space and time, fueled by the energy he drains from stars. He's pretty much a star himself, in every sense of the word."

"Then the orb is some kind of weapon?" Ali said, scratching her chin with the tip of her claw.

The Doctor paused as she approached the lake, dipping her toe into the water and shivering slightly. She waded in up to her ankles and then glanced over her shoulder. "What makes you say that?" she wondered.

Ali frowned. "You were holding it. The orb. I saw a flash in the sky. Why else would you want it back so badly? And why couldn't you tell me what it was? I'm thinking it's because you're not supposed to have it. It's not yours." She paused to stand and stretch her legs while the Doctor waded in further, the water coming up to her knees and soaking the bottom of her jeans. "I think you stole it."

Humming softly as she stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets again. In the shimmering moonlight, I could see her lips quirk up into a smile that was more genuine than any of the others she'd tried in the last few minutes. "You're very clever, aren't you, Ali?"

"So I'm told," she said cheekily.

The smile dropped and the Time Lady's voice hardened. "Where's the orb?"

"Doctor!" I interjected, stepping forward a bit in protest.

Her gaze flicked to me and I saw the determined glint in her eyes. She set her jaw. "You don't know what's at stake," she told me. "I need that orb. To save _your_ planet, Diana."

My face heated up as if it were on fire and I turned away, a tiny spark of anger flaring up inside me after being so clearly chastised like a petulant child. I focused my eyes on the grass and grabbed onto a few blades between my toes. It wasn't as cold as I'd first thought.

"That's a spaceship, isn't it?" Ali said after a few moments.

I could hear the Doctor moving through the water. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well you're a traveller, aren't you?"

"You could say that," the Doctor replied, a hint of a smile in her voice.

Ali sighed and scraped her pointed legs across the ground. "I'd kill to travel. This planet- we get travelers from everywhere."

"It's in a terminus galaxy. It's a jumping off point for a lot of places."

"Exactly. That's why the Starman came here, isn't it?" I smiled despite my frustration. Ali was smart and she was persistent, much more persistent than I usually was. "He was on his way somewhere else, and you followed him here. You said so. Halfway across the universe. So you must have got here somehow. And I don't think you came on a Virgo craft; a slow, unreliable space bus, not if you were chasing something. So you must have your own ship."

The Doctor laughed. "You're a regular Sherlock Holmes, aren't you?"

"A Sherlock what?"

"Never mind. Just someone from that other planet I'm trying to save. Now if you're done showing off, give me the orb and I'll be out of your life."

I heard Ali's legs scramble over the pebbles. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw that the Doctor had come out of the lake and approached the other alien. But Ali had backed away from her, looking somewhat alarmed. I didn't like the way the Doctor was behaving, trying to intimidate a girl into giving her what she wanted.

"You're always in such a hurry, aren't you?" Ali said, all four eyes blinking nervously. "And you're in a real big hurry to get away now, so you wouldn't want to be far from your ship. That box wasn't here before and it's very much not from round here, like the two of you. So it stands to reason that it must be your ship." She cast the TARDIS a thoughtful glance. "It doesn't look nearly big enough to travel through space, though, so it must be some kind of an illusion, bigger than it looks. Or maybe it exists partly outside of space and time." _No way. She figured it out on her own?_ "That makes it bigger on the inside-."

Ali's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "Oh, my days," she breathed. "It's a TARDIS. You've got a TARDIS."

The Doctor scratched the back of her neck and tried to look casual. "I really, really don't know what you're talking about," she said.

Ali scurried over to the ship with wide, excited eyes and it was only mildly terrifying. "Yes, you do," she countered. "We learned about them in school! In science, you know, _theoretically_ , that they could exist. I never believed they were real, though. I wanted to. I _so_ wanted to. But I never did" She flashed the Doctor and I a toothy grin. "Until now. This is so cool!"

The Doctor had gathered her shoes and socks, and trailed after Ali. "On the other hand, it could just be a big blue box," she suggested, leaning up against the ship with her arms folded over her chest.

But Ali was having none of it. She looked excitedly between the Doctor and I. "You must both be Time Lords! I mean, you fit the part perfectly. Well, the Doctor does, at least. You look like a human, but you're not human. You're pretty smug and you think you're the carp's whiskers-"

"Is there anything you don't know, Ali?"

She beamed and shook her head. "Not really. We also learned about Time Lords at school. In history, ancient history. We were told the Time Lords had all died out a long time ago. But here you are!"

The semi smug expression on the Doctor's face had melted away by then and she reached out to touch Ali's claw. Her eyes were pleading. "Ali," she whispered, "please. I need that orb. Time is running out."

"So take me with you."

The Doctor drew back her hand. "I can't do that."

"I'll give you the orb if you take me with you?"

"No."

"Doctor, why not?" I asked, finally joining the pair by the TARDIS. "She wants to travel and she'll give you the orb thing, whatever it is."

"No. It's way too dangerous where we're going. I don't even want to bring you along, not when you're still so early. But I can't just leave you here."

I furrowed my brows. "Gee, thanks," I muttered.

Ali tugged on the Time Lady's jacket with her claw. "Oh, come on, Doctor! You're going to save your favorite planet. You're going to rescue a whole race! What does my one life matter compared to all theirs?"

"Low blow," I tsked.

The Doctor shot me a glare. "Ali, you can't ask this of me. I'm already putting Diana's life in danger, I can't-"

"You'll need some help, won't you? I could help while Diana stays in the TARDIS, if that's what you want. Please?"

The Time Lady sighed, leaning up against the TARDIS as she thought in silence. Finally, she looked up and smiled. "I can't get rid of you, can I? Alright." She pulled a key out from her jacket and pushed open the doors. "Ladies first, Ali."

The alien grinned and rushed inside the TARDIS, her legs clattering against the grating. I shot the Doctor a confused look as I followed her inside. "Um, aren't you a lady?" I asked.

"Nonbinary, love," she said, patting me on the shoulder and then stepping past me.

I stood on the ramp for a second. "Okay, but-." The Doctor had already gone up to the console and started typing away at the keyboard. "Pronouns?" I muttered under my breath.

Ali's mouth was agape as she stared up at the time rotor. She turned in a full circle, eyes alight with wonder, and then looked back at the Doctor. "Where are we going?"

"The planet's called Earth," the Doctor said. "Where humans first came from. Long way back."

"I've heard of it."

The Doctor grinned. "That doesn't surprise me, Little Miss A-Star." She called me over and gesturing vaguely to the console. "I've already set the coordinates in. Could you-"

"I know."

I quickly scanned the console, knowing immediately what specific buttons and levers to handle since we were planet jumping, galaxy jumping, _and_ time jumping. The Doctor took the half of the console by the scanner while I took the other half, moving from one panel to the next as certain dials had to be adjusted.

A few moments later, the light turbulence evened out and the Doctor and I could relax while the TARDIS did the rest of the work.

She leaned against the console, arms crossed over her chest as I sat down on the jumpseat. She raised her eyebrows at Ali, then at me. "I suppose you'll want an explain, then?" Ali and I both nodded. "I was on Earth, trying to save the old place again. And there was this thing, this creature. Call it what you want- Well, actually it's usually called a Nestene Consciousness. Just another bully, another demigod like the Starman wanting to feed off the planet and drain it dry. I was trying to find it and put a sock in it, and I was helped by a girl. She was probably about your age. A lot like you in many ways."

Ali settled down, her legs splayed out around her again. "What was her name?"

"Rose. Rose Tyler." The Doctor smiled and I sat up a little straighter, eager to hear more about the shop girl I had always admired.

"A human girl?" Ali asked.

"Yeah. The only type they had on the planet back then," she laughed. "You see, in that time and in that corner of the universe, space travel hadn't really taken off just yet. So there were only native creatures on the planet and the humans were the only halfway sentient ones. Them and meerkats."

"Hey!" I interjected. "I'm human too, stupid."

"You're human?" Ali asked.

"Um, yeah."

She tilted her head to the side as she looked at me. "You seem different from the other humans I've met."

I half smiled. "Thank you?"

Ali glanced at the Doctor then and rested against the railing. "Tell me about Rose Tyler."

The Doctor checked something on the scanner, grinned, and then pushed off of the console. "Rose Tyler," she said softly. "She was funny and tough and clever and resourceful. She saved me, and she saved her boyfriend Mickey, and she saved the whole damned planet."

" _Oh_ , you're in love," Ali teased.

I leaned back against the jumpseat with smirk, watching the Doctor try to explain herself. Her smile faltered. "No, don't make that mistake, Ali. Let's just say she was good company. And I-… I like company."

"It must be difficult for you, then. Living as long as you do."

The Doctor shrugged. "I've had many companions in my life. They come and, inevitably, they go." She spared me a glance. "But without them?" She trailed off, her chin falling to her chest as the ghost of her smile faded away completely.

"You're the last lonely Time Lord," Ali guessed.

"What is it with teenage girls, anyway?" said the Doctor, a too lighthearted tone to her voice. "Always digging. When I met Rose, I'd only recently regenerated. I'm sure you know all about regeneration. You've probably got a diploma in it," she joked. "I was feeling a bit like a soft-shell crab, waiting for my new shell to harden, if you'll pardon the analogy. I was still finding my feet. I thought: new body, new start, new companion."

"So what happened?" Ali wondered. "Did you ask her?"

"I did. And she turned me down." The Time Lady shrugged. "I'd come on too strong, I guess, played my cards too soon. As I say, I was still adjusting to the regeneration. Not quite calibrated. She just looked at me.

"She's got a big heart," she continued. "And that's why she couldn't come. Because she cared more about what she'd have to leave behind than what I could offer her. Her family, her boyfriend, her life. I couldn't argue with that. I couldn't expect her to drop everything and go gallivanting off with a perfect stranger in search of adventure."

"Don't you normally expect that?" I asked, almost exactly as Ali said, "Are you saying I don't have a big heart?"

The Doctor looked quickly between us. "Not at all, Ali." Then her impossibly big eyes settled on me and she sighed. "I suppose I do. But not this time."

Ali stood then, drawing mine and the Doctor's attention. "You think I don't care, don't you?" she snapped.

"No, I didn't say that. And I didn't mean that, either," the Doctor explained. "I can land you right back on Karkinos a second after we left. Nobody will ever know. I didn't have time to tell Rose that."

"I know you didn't really want me to come with you, though," Ali countered.

"Well, I didn't have much of a choice, did I? But you're here now, aren't you? So stop your whingeing."

Ali seemed lost in thought. She timidly approached the console, looking up at the time rotor and trailing her human hand over one of the panels. "You said you already saved the Earth. Why do you need to go back there?"

"After I said goodbye to Rose, I came in here and started up the engines. Next thing I knew, lights were flashing, alarms were blaring! It was all bells and buzzers. See, the TARDIS is uniquely tuned to sense any problems with the fabric of time, and just as it had alerted me to the presence of the Nestene Consciousness in a place called London back in Rose's time, now it was alerting me to a very similar problem somewhere else on the planet, a few thousand years earlier."

"The Starman?" Ali wondered.

The Doctor beamed. "Give the girl a big round of applause. They're dangerous entities, born when stars collapse, when they become black holes and white dwarfs and red dwarfs and wormholes, or whatever you call them in your neck of the intergalactic woods. When they collapse, they alter the shape of space and they alter the shape of time, and sometimes a Starman is created. A cosmic being with a primitive consciousness. And if you're not careful, they can escape from their own time and go trampling through the universe, wiping it clean and rewriting history, rewriting the laws of science itself. I suppose you could call them gods, if you wanted." She paused and rested a hand on the console. "It was always one of the duties of the Time Lords to police the universe and snap the cuffs on them when they popped up where they shouldn't. They're nasty things, you know. Gods. they don't much care for anyone other than themselves. Don't like any competition. _So_ , off I went to try to head this Starman off at the pass."

Ali's claw rested against the pouch strapped across her torso. "Why did it look like there were two of them?"

"That's 'cause it was existing in several different dimensions at once. Now, that orb," she extended her hand in Ali's direction, waiting for her to hand it over. Ali took it out with her human hand and dropped it in the Doctor's open palm. "Thank you. The orb was created in a very similar way to the Starman. It has the power of a collapsed star in it. It was made by a very clever, and not very nice, character called the Exalted Holgoroth of All Tagkhanastria. And he was no better than the bloody Starman! He was only really interested in using the orb to build a space empire." The Doctor smirked as she tossed the orb in the air. "So I thought I'd kill two pterodactyls with one stone. I paid a visit to the Holgoroth, pretending to be an emissary from the Crab Nebula, and I stole his orb right out from under his nose. And then I went after the Starman and got to him before he reached Earth. In the process he nearly killed me."

I jolted forward in my seat. "Wait, what?"

"Remember how I told you the TARDIS was supposed to come after me after I took care of Castor and Pollux?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, the orb sent it back into space. And I happened to be stuck with it. So when the TARDIS took a few seconds longer than expected, I got very close to swelling up into a big Doctor balloon before my lungs exploded and I got a horrible sunburn."

"Wouldn't you just explode or something?" I asked.

The Doctor shook her head. "That's a common misconception, so no. But that's not important. What _is_ important is that I had superior firepower!" She tossed the orb into the air again, watching as it seemed to freeze in the air for a split second before falling into her hand again. "And I knocked him for six! Well, into the twenty-sixth dimension anyway."

"Please don't make sports jokes," I groaned.

The Doctor grinned. "He's safe there for a while. Can't do much damage. Space and time's always been a right mess in there. Might even sort things out a bit. Who knows?"

"So if you flipped him into another dimension, why are we going back to Earth?" Ali asked.

"It seems that what happened on your planet with the Starman sent ripples spreading out across the universe. It's always the same. You push one problem under the carpet and another one pops out on the other side. Cause and effect, unforeseen consequences, the butterfly's wing."

"A what wing?"

The Doctor waved her hand dismissively. "Just an expression, Ali. In a nutshell, there's another Starman, a worse one and far more powerful one, heading for Earth and I need to stop it. It might already be there."

"Can't you just do what you did with the twins and grab it before it arrives?"

"No. That's the thing. Me and this new Starman exist in the same time stream. A side-effect of using the orb. Unforeseen consequences. Turns out the magic orb is not as special as the Holgoroth claimed. Should have read the small print. 'This item may not work as advertised!' So until I send this new Starman packing, the two of us have a time tag on us. We're linked."

The TARDIS jolted and nearly threw me out of my seat. I grabbed onto the railing to steady myself while the Doctor tried to smooth out the rest of the ride.

"So now, " she shouted over the turbulence, "we're landing on Earth two thousand years before the birth of Christ!"

Ali was holding onto the railing for dear life, her eyes wide and worried. " _Who?_ "

The Doctor held onto the console and braced her legs against the floor as the turbulence began to lessen. "He was a bit like Sherlock Holmes. Knew the answers to everything. Very good at solving mysteries. Some humans use him to measure time."

 _Well that's one way of looking at it,_ I thought to myself.

"And whereabouts on Earth?" Ali asked after regaining her balance.

The Doctor yanked on the dematerialization lever and the ship shuddered to a stop. "A place called Babylon. Lovely little spot, but very hot in the summer."

"Doctor?" Ali called as the Time Lady bolted down the ramp. "One last thing?"

She halted by the door, hands poised by the handles. "Make it quick."

"This new Starman, what will it look like?"

The Doctor made a little sound in the back of her throat. "Huh. Good question."

"Will it look like the twins?"

"Probably not. It depends on what planets it's absorbed. It could look like anything – a lizard, a goat, a sea urchin, a giant amorphous blob. One thing I can tell you, though, is it probably won't look very nice."

When the Doctor opened the TARDIS doors with Ali and I starting after him, I realized then that I still hadn't put any shoes on. _Why didn't I do that after my shower?_ I also realized that my phone and journal had slid across the floor, almost completely on the other end of the room. I quickly picked my things up, slipping the phone into my pocket, and tossed the journal onto the jumpseat.

I could just see the Doctor through the semi open doorway, with Ali hiding behind the closed half. I moved to the top of the ramp and shot Ali a confused look. She held a finger to her mouth and then went back to listening to the Doctor.

"I need to speak to someone in charge," she said as I stepped quietly down the ramp. "It's rather urgent."

"Who are you?" someone asked. "Are you a messenger from the gods?"

The Doctor paused for a moment. "You could say that. Let's say that I _am_ a messenger from the gods." I could just make out the sound of feet pattering on hard ground and then the Doctor shouted, "No! Don't go in there!"

A person appeared in the doorway then, a man with dark skin and a bronze colored helmet. Ali's clawed arm shot out in front of me and then one of her antennae lashed out and whipped across the man's neck. The man started shaking like he was having a seizure and then he stumbled backwards, out of the doorway, and collapsed. His shield and spear clattered against each other when he dropped them.

"Stand back," Ali said to me, gently pushing me back with her claw.

"Diana! Ali!" the Doctor shouted. He sounded like he was struggling against something. I tried to push Ali's arm aside, but it was enormous and she was incredibly strong. "Don't move, both of you! Shut the door and wait for me. I'll be alright!"

I tried to reach around Ali's claw for the door. "Doctor!"

"I'll be alright!" she called.

Ali slammed the door shut with her human hand and then dropped her claw. I stumbled back in shock, my mind still reeling. When Ali started towards me, I instinctively backed away and cast her a wary glance.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "While you were searching for your things, the Doctor told me to protect you and the TARDIS."

My eyes shot to her two antennae, the one on her right shoulder still partially unfurled. "What is that?" I asked.

"It's an antenode. They lash out and attack enemies when we're in battle. It's a form of protection. I promise I won't hurt you."

I moved towards the jumpseat, never letting my eyes stray to anything other than Ali. "Did you kill him?"

"It was instinctual. And I was trying to keep us both safe."

I nodded. "Okay."

Ali claw snapped open and closed, her human fingers tapping nervously against her chin. "Is there a way for us to see what's happening to the Doctor?" she asked, looking between the doors and I.

I looked at the console. "Yes. I should be able to find her on the scanner."

Turning the external camera on was easily done with the press of a button. Adding sound and clarifying the image was just a button press and a dial turn away. The image on the screen showed the Doctor surrounded by men with helmets, spears, and shields. In front of the Doctor was a middle aged man with skin a few shades lighter than the Doctor's, wearing decorative robes and a very fancy looking staff.

"Liar!" he shouted. "You are not an emissary of the gods! You are a mortal, like the rest of us. You are a spy and the law of Hammurabi clearly states what must be done to spies!"

I felt my heart sink. "Oh, no."

The Doctor stepped forward to try and defend herself, but two soldiers grabbed onto her arms and restrained her. She tried proving that she was a messenger from the gods and then said that everyone was in serious danger, but no one would listen to her. The man ordered to have her taken away and the Doctor was quickly dragged out of sight.

"What will they do to her?" Ali asked.

I shook my head. "I-I don't know."

"Do you think they'll kill her?"

I stared at the scanner, even though the Doctor was long gone. Several soldiers had stayed behind and were looking up at the TARDIS, talking amongst themselves. "I don't know. Maybe."

Ali picked up the orb, which the Doctor had left behind in a divot on one of the panels. "We have to do something," she said. "Even if they don't kill her, she doesn't have this. She won't be able to fight back against the Starman when it shows up."

One of the soldiers beat the end of his spear against the TARDIS doors. The ship hummed and I could tell she didn't appreciate being poked by stupid little humans. The soldier thumped the doors again, harder this time, and I bristled slightly.

"We can't get past them," I told Ali. "Even if we wanted to."

She frowned. "We could."

"How?"

Another soldier had joined the first and the two started ramming into the doors with their spears. Ali growled softly and I leaned away from her. Her human hand had balled into a fist and her antenodes were quivering.

"Ali?"

"They're making me mad," she said. "And they wouldn't like me when I'm mad. Believe me."

The soldiers banged their spears against the doors again and again, and Ali grew more and more upset. One of the soldiers laughed then and said something obscene about the Doctor, something that made me consider punching him in the throat. Ali growled again and stared at the doors, her claw clicking as it opened and closed.

"You might want to stay back," she said. "It's best not to get too close to me when I lose myself to my battle rage."

Ali approached the doors slowly, her head tilted to the side as if she was listening. I was expecting her to burst out of the ship and rip the soldiers apart. Instead she waited. There was a pause between beats and then she flung the door open. One of the soldiers stumbled inside, obviously not expecting the door to just give way. Ali kicked him swiftly in the chest with one of her strange, crab-beetle legs, and the man went flying out of sight. She scrambled outside after him and all I could hear were the remaining men's terrified screams.

I spun around to watch the scanner. Ali's antenodes were reeling back into her shoulders and curling up, while two men lay at her feet. I couldn't tell if they were dead or not, but I really hoped they weren't. There were still six soldiers left and although Ali was very fierce and intimidating, I doubted she would be able to fight back against all of them.

She seemed frozen in thought, most likely calculating the best way to attack. One of the soldiers stepped forward and threw his spear at her. "Ali, no!" I screamed, racing towards the doors. But the spear only bounced off of her shell and fell to the ground, split in two. Something rumbled deep inside her chest and Ali looked from the spear to the soldier who had thrown it. I stood in the doorway and watched as Ali raced forward. He screamed and fell beneath her, clawing at anything within reach. Her body was large enough to block the soldier from view, so I couldn't see what she was doing. But I knew I didn't want to see it.

The man stopped screaming a few seconds later. The remaining soldiers stared at Ali in terror, but charged towards her with their spears readied. She hissed and lashed out with a bloody claw, snapping the neck of one soldier and then sweeping two others aside with his body. The remaining three soldiers all lunged at her with their spears, but again they snapped in half and were absolutely useless.

Ali turned and stabbed one man in the stomach with her claw. He fell to the ground with his stomach ripped open and I had to turn away. I clung to the railing with my eyes squeezed shut, trying to block out the image of the man's face as he died. I had never seen someone die before.

Four screams and several minutes later, I heard Ali tap against the TARDIS door. "We can go now," she said. "You should grab the orb."

I nodded and started up the ramp again, making sure I didn't look outside. Once back at the doorway, I kept my gaze on the ground and extended my arm. "Here." She took it with her human hand, her fingers spattered with blood.

"Are you alright?"

I nodded again. "Yeah, I'm- I'm fine. I've just, um, I've never seen someone die before." My eyes began to well with tears and I quickly turned away. My voice cracked slightly. "It's a little too much for me… right now."

Ali sighed. "I know that to you, I probably seem like a monster." I looked back at her, about to protest, but the words died in my throat when I saw her four beady eyes blinking at me, blood spattered across her pale torso. "But I was only doing what I was raised to do. In Karkinian culture, the female is the deadliest during battle. When the safety of the group is threatened, we fight back with the strength of twenty men and we don't stop until the threat is entirely eliminated. And you, the Doctor, and the TARDIS are my group right now."

"I understand." I wiped away my tears and attempted a smile. "And you're not a monster. I would never think you are."

"You can stay here if you want, but the Doctor needs our help. If you want to come, you can ride on my back. It'll be faster that way." I stupidly let my eyes drift to the bodies of the soldiers strewn across the dirt. It was suddenly difficult to breathe and I didn't want to, but a part of me couldn't stop staring. "Diana." I blinked and looked back at Ali. She was smiling at me and the multiple rows of teeth shone brightly in the sunlight. "Come on. The Doctor needs both of us."

Riding on Ali's back wasn't dissimilar to riding a horse. Except, horses didn't have claw-like legs and a crab-like exoskeleton. I sat right where her torso met the lower half of her body. It was sort of shaped the way an ant's body is, with a junction between the front half and the back half.

The TARDIS had parked itself in a stone courtyard, but I tried not to get a very close look at it since there seemed to be blood everywhere. The entrance of the courtyard was marked by two stone pillars with an opening between them and Ali scattered through, bringing us into a large, but surprisingly empty city. There were stone and clay buildings all around with little carts and pottery containers filling up the streets. But there wasn't anybody around.

"Where is everyone?" said Ali.

"I don't know. Day off, maybe?"

She laughed humorlessly. "Somehow, I don't think that's it."

There was a street that led parallel to the courtyard we had just exited and then another one perpendicular to it. The second street led straight ahead and at the very end of it was an enormous stone structure. There were dozens of desert plants and shrubs decorating the base of the structure and some of the stones had been painted gold and blue.

"What is that?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. Nothing else in this city is as large or elaborately decorated, though. It has to be important. Do you think they've taken the Doctor there?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"You should probably hold on tight," Ali suggested. "I'm the fastest one in my family."

She shot off like a rocket, hardly giving me any time to wrap my limbs around her and hold on for dear life. I'd never gone much faster than a trot or a brief canter on a horse, but something told me that Ali was going much faster than any horse on Earth could gallop. I leaned forward and clung to her back, my face buried between her shoulder blades.

Her body jolted and I yelped in surprise, tightening my grip around her torso as I started to slide backwards. "What hap-?" I stopped myself mid sentence when I realized, upon opening my eyes, that Ali had leapt onto the stone wall of the structure and was starting to climb.

"Hold on!"

I wrapped my legs around her as tightly as I could manage and buried my head in her back again. "I don't do heights," I muttered. "Heights are not good."

"So don't look down."

It wasn't a very long distance to the top of the structure, but the ride up seemed to last for an eternity. The sun was beating down on us and even though I was only wearing one layer of clothes, I was already sweating and starting to feel miserable. Hot weather was never my favorite kind. Ali's body shuddered and then fell forwards at one point, making me yell as my brain momentarily thought we were falling.

"Shut up!" she hissed.

I opened my eyes and saw that we were inside the structure. Ali had climbed inside through a large window and although no one was around, my shout was certain to attract more soldiers or guards. I slid off of Ali's back with wobbling, shaking legs and stumbled over to the wall for support.

"Stay here," she said.

"What? Where are you- Oh."

Across the room was a very tall, very muscular man with a shield, spear, and a sheathed sword strapped to his waist. He was standing in front of a balcony and he eyes were fixed on Ali. He dropped his spear and drew his sword, fear and anger shining in his eyes.

"Ali, be careful!" I said worriedly.

She lunged forward, her claw arching through the air. The man shouted and swung his sword at Ali's arm, but it cracked against her claw. She growled, breaking the sword in half like it was a twig and then flinging it across the room without another thought. The man shoved into her torso with his shield. Ali swept the shield aside as her claw closed around his neck. She started towards the balcony and dangled his body over the edge, then dropped him.

The man screamed and then fell silent a moment later. I rushed to Ali's side, resting a hand on her claw. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head. "No. But look." She pointed with her human hand to a courtyard far below us, where it seemed the entire city had gathered. In the center of the courtyard was the Doctor, bent over a large boulder with two soldiers holding her down. "The Doctor."

A loud crack of thunder sounded, drawing everyone's attention. Across the courtyard was the empty desert, where a large storm was starting to brew. Dust and sand was starting to form a giant tornado and above it, the clouds had gathered and turned dark while flashing occasionally with a blot of lightning. Something started to form in the darkened mass of sand and wind.

"Oh, my god," I breathed.

The thing that had appeared was a giant creature, more horrifying than anything else I had ever seen. It seemed to have the head of a goat, judging by the enormous horns that sprouted from its skull. Two lizard arms supported its weight, while its torso gradually melted into that of a rotten fish, and two silver wings dropped over its shoulders.

A shout sounded behind us and Ali and I turned to see a group of soldiers by the doorway. Ali ordered for me to get on her back. She climbed from the balcony to the wall, the pointed tips of her legs fitting between the stones and securing her in place. One of the soldiers ran up to the balcony, his spear raised and aimed directly at us, but then one of Ali's antenodes struck him in the chest and he toppled over the balcony.

"Hold on!" Ali yelled over the chaos in the courtyard below. I wrapped my arms around her and tried not to scream when she began scrambling down the wall. "Lean back! You're throwing me off!"

I tightened my legs around her middle and leaned back slightly, not daring to release my hold on her back. When that wasn't enough, I grabbed onto one of her legs instead and latched onto her left antenode with my other hand. We were probably about twenty feet off the ground when Ali slipped and we both fell.

I landed on top of her and then rolled off, my shoulder slamming into the ground first and then my head bouncing off the dirt. Ali was by my side several seconds later, looming over me with a worried expression. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine." Behind her, the terrifying Starman was advancing on the city and spewing water from its mouth as it snarled. "You have to get the orb to the Doctor!"

"What about you?"

"I don't wanna be anywhere near that thing! I'll be fine. Just go help her!"

Ali hesitated for a moment before nodding and then scampering off. I managed to sit up on my own and look at my limbs to see if anything was broken. My shoulder was hurting badly enough that I couldn't really move it, but nothing broken was jutting out of my skin and I presumed I was fine. The structure wall was a few yards behind me, so I struggled to my feet and hobbled over. I'd forgotten to put shoes on, again, so my feet were dusty and grimy as I sat down with my back to the wall.

The courtyard was an absolute mess. All the townspeople had fled, running off in a million different directions as the Starman grew closer. The large mass of soldiers that remained had stood their ground and were ready to attack, but I spotted a few of them turn and desert their compatriots. _I don't blame you._

I saw Ali appear somewhere in the ranks, the Doctor, sitting on her back with the orb in her hand. As they charged past the soldiers, many of them fell to their knees and began wailing and praying in desperation. The goat headed Starman crashed through the wall of the courtyard with a screech and then gobbled down a portion of the terrified soldiers. Just behind the creature, looming below the darkened storm clouds, was another Starman in the shape of two men.

"Oh, fuck." I got to my feet and leaned against the wall, my legs trembling as the first Starman crawled further into the courtyard. The twins, Castor and Pollux, roared in the distance and started towards the courtyard. "Nope. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no."

I started running. My shoulder was still aching and sent burning pain through my body every time I took a step, but I had to put as much distance as possible between myself and the Starmen. I wasn't willing to just sit and wait for them to come eat me. If I could get to the TARDIS, I knew I would be safe no matter what happened.

I reached the edge of the wall and stopped, turning to search for Ali and the Doctor amongst the crowd of screaming men. Then I spotted something shining as it trailed up the side of the Starman. I squinted and adjusted my glasses, unintentionally making them go sonic. They zoomed in on the shining light and showed me the Doctor astride Ali, racing up the monster's body.

I grasped my necklace, my arm protesting to the sudden movement. Ali was on the creature's shoulder when it suddenly turned and looked at her. Panic gripped my heart as the creature's horrible, dead eyes narrowed and it roared angrily. The Doctor opened his mouth and seemed to shout something, then threw the light into the Starman's mouth.

There was silence. And then a wave of hot air blasted through the courtyard and knocked me over. Silver flakes began to rain from the sky as I pushed myself up. The Starmen were gone. All that remained was the silver rain. Then I realized that I couldn't see Ali or the Doctor anywhere.

* * *

" _Ow!_ "

I groaned as pain radiated throughout my entire shoulder and down my arm. The Doctor's fingers had probed a little too roughly during her examination. She lightly patted my hand and smiled at me. "No bones broken. Just a sore shoulder. Nothing a few pills can't fix."

The Doctor's eyes didn't quite focus on me. "Are you okay?" I asked.

She nodded, then grimaced. "Fine."

"You sure? You don't look fine."

"Just a headache," she said. "I landed pretty hard."

"Then you should lie down and rest."

The Time Lady waved her hand dismissively. "Please. I'll be fine, love. Besides, you had quite a fall yourself."

I grumbled and shook my head, turning my attention to Ali as she slept soundly on the ground several paces away. "Don't remind me."

The Doctor leaned back against the palm tree we had sat under, her eyes fluttering shut as a breeze drifted by. Ali sighed softly and a tiny cloud of dust and sand puffed up before her face. I looked back at the Doctor and noticed the smile tugging at her lips. I smiled too and shuffled sideways a few inches, putting some space between us so I could rest my back comfortably against the tree trunk.

"Doctor?"

I opened my eyes to see five men standing over us and I inhaled sharply, sitting up completely. The tallest man looked to be in his thirties or forties. His skin was decorated with bronze and gold jewelry, and he wore a bronze helmet. One of the other men I recognized as the one who called the Doctor a liar and a false messenger from the gods. The other three I didn't recognize.

"I am sorry I doubted you," said the tallest man. I realized then he was probably the king, since he wore finer clothes than all the others. "You were right, Doctor."

The Doctor scoffed. "I usually am. Now go away. I'm trying to sleep."

The man who had ordered her to be dragged away spoke next. "We must write about you in our histories. What is your name?"

Sighing heavily, the Doctor brushed a hand across her forehead and wiped away her sweat. "You go through Marduk's fifty names, and you'll probably find mine in there somewhere."

"Marduk? Who is Marduk?"

"Get away from him!" Ali had woken up and was scurrying over, rage written plainly across her face.

The Doctor grimaced. "Ali, no-."

She took one of the men in her grasp, her claw tightening around his neck and lifting him off the ground. "You would have killed him," she growled. "You and all the others! Now see how you like it."

She dropped the man and then swiped the others away with a single wave of her arm. She advanced on the first man, the man with the gold and bronze jewelry, and snarled in his face as he fell to his knees.

The Doctor struggled to her feet and reached out for Ali, protesting and begging her to stop. "Ali, stop. You've done enough. You have to s-stop…" Her voice trailed off and then she collapsed.

"Doctor!" I hurried to her side and leaned over her, trying to understand what was wrong. "Doctor?"

She groaned and fell onto her back. " 's time to go home," she mumbled before passing out.

I grabbed hold of her shoulder. "Doctor! Doctor, wake up!"

Ali knelt in front of the Time Lady and, without even exerting herself, lifted her up in her arms. "Get on my back, Diana," she said.

Once back at the TARDIS, I opened the doors with a snap of my fingers and Ali hurried inside. She nudged my journal off of the jumpseat and placed the Doctor on the cushions. I worriedly brushed my hand along the Doctor's forehead.

"The fall must have hurt her more than she let on," Ali said.

"Do you think she has a concussion?"

Ali hummed. "Probably. But I don't know how to treat a _Time Lord_ concussion. Do you?"

I pushed my glasses further up my nose and froze when they turned black. "I forgot," I whispered. I switched them back to regular lenses and then pinched the corner like Twelve had demonstrated. I quickly looked up and down the Doctor's body, scanning for any injuries. "I was right. She has a concussion, but everything else seems to be fine."

"So how do we treat her?"

I repeated Ali's question in my mind, still pinching the glasses and hoping that I was using them correctly. A page of text appeared in my lenses, explaining how quickly the concussion would heal and what medication I could give her to lessen the pain. I turned to the console and typed out what kind of medication I needed, pushing my glasses up when I needed to see the keyboard and replacing them to check the spelling. The TARDIS whirred and just below the scanner, a little panel the size of my journal opened up and a bottle appeared. I cleared the text from my glasses and then returned to the Doctor's side, pushing a pill past her lips.

"Is that it?"

"I think so. I think if we just let her rest, she should be fine."

Ali leaned against the railing by the end of the jumpseat. "How did you know how to do that?" she asked.

I gestured to my glasses with a shrug. "The Doctor gave these to me. Apparently they connect to the wifi, so I can look things up if I need to."

"Wifi?"

"Um… It's like a-an electric library, sort of."

Ali hummed. "So now we wait?"

"So now we wait."

As it turns out, we didn't have to wait much longer than a few minutes. The Doctor shot up all of a sudden, looking around and rubbing her eyes. "One of you gave me medicine," she said. "What did you give me?"

I handed her the bottle. "The TARDIS gave me these for your concussion."

She smiled and slipped the bottle into her coat pocket. "Good old girl."

"Are you alright now?" Ali asked.

The Doctor's face hardened and she turned stiffly in Ali's direction. "I am. Those men won't be, though."

Ali looked away. "I'm sorry," she sighed, "but they deserved their punishment. I should have killed them all."

"I know you only did what you thought was right. But this is why I usually take humans as my companions. They have- well, they have humanity. Not all of them, I'll give you that, but the ones I choose." Ali stared unblinkingly at the Time Lady. "That's why I was reluctant to take you in the first place. Not for your own safety, but for others. You Karkinians have a scary reputation, particularly the females, and having seen you in action I can see why. Remember what I told you when we first spoke, Ali? I'm not a warrior unless I have to be. It's not my way."

She swallowed and I could see the anger already burning in her eyes. "You killed the Starman."

The Doctor shook her head. "I didn't kill him. I simply sent him back to where he can't do any harm."

"But if I hadn't saved you-"

"I've somehow managed to survive for quite a long time without your help."

Ali stood to her full height, her face flushing red with anger as bitterness tainted her voice. "You ungrateful-"

"I'm sorry!" the Doctor interjected, throwing her hands up. "You're right. I'm sorry. You did save me. Without you I probably would've regenerated again and the Starmen probably have eaten the entire planet. So, I will be eternally grateful to you. But your way, Ali, it's too risky. I wouldn't ever be able to go anywhere if I was worried you were going to go into a Karkinian war frenzy every time anyone looked at me funny."

"Doctor, she was only trying to protect you," I said.

"I know."

Ali huffed. "I can't help it-"

"Exactly! That's my point," said the Doctor. "You're from Karkinos. I thought maybe you were different. You are special, I'll give you that, and you're nearly as clever as me. But you're also a warrior. And I can't ask you to change that because that's what you were born to be. And the best place for you right now is back on Karkinos, looking after your family."

Ali settled down and sat on the floor, her fingers drumming quietly atop her claw. She smiled, her teeth shining in the semi green glow of the time rotor. "I gave those humans a fright though, didn't I?" she chuckled. "They won't forget me in a hurry."

The Doctor moved to the console. "They won't ever forget you, Ali. You're a star and you always will be. You'll be _their_ star. They'll name a constellation after you and add you to their zodiac along with the twins and the goat-fish." She smiled too and set in the coordinates for the lake where we had found her. "You're my A-star girl.

Ali was quick to leave the TARDIS after we landed. She hurried outside and looked up at the sky where several moons were situated in a loose arc. The lake looked beautiful and mysterious as it shimmered in the moonlight, and I made a mental note to remember exactly what it looked like. It would fit perfectly in the story I'd started writing back home, long before I ever met the Doctor. _Home…_ But I shook my head and pushed those memories away. I knew that if I thought about home or what I'd lost, I would start crying and I wouldn't stop for a very long time.

"Since Diana helped me fly this time, I can assure you that we've landed only a few minutes after you left," the Doctor said.

A large bird called as it flew down, skimming across the lake's surface before sailing back into the trees along the shore. Ali stood in the mudbank just below the TARDIS and looked at the Doctor. "Where will you go now?" she asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "Wherever we're needed, I suppose."

Ali laughed and shook her head. "You are so pompous."

The Doctor grinned. "Yeah, I am, aren't I? Diana and the Doctor, off to save the universe!"

"So you won't be alone?"

"No. Not for a short while, anyways. Diana will leave soon, though. Perhaps in a day or two. Or three."

 _Which you still haven't explained to me,_ I thought in the Doctor's general direction.

"I don't know what you mean, but if you're alone again will you do something for me? That girl you were telling me about? Rose Tyler?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "What about her?"

Ali nudged her with her claw and smiled. "You should try again."

"No, I gave it my best, Ali. This life wasn't for her."

"Oh? I didn't have you down as a quitter, Doctor."

She was trying to goad her into returning for Rose, but it wasn't working as well as she had probably hoped. "It's too late," the Doctor said.

"How can anything be too late? You're a Time Lord!" Ali exclaimed. "I thought time had no meaning in your infinite, immortal, immaterial box of tricks. Too late, indeed. You just get back there!"

The Doctor laughed and shook her head, pushing off of the TARDIS to head back inside. "Ali-"

"No, listen. You go straight back there now and you ask her again. Because I know what it's like to fancy a girl and you definitely fancy her. But you've got to offer her more than just, y'know, _you_. I mean, you're a Time Lord, but you're not all that. Sell it to her!"

"That's why I need a companion, you know. That's why I've had so many of them. To keep my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds. To keep me from myself. It's people like Rose and Di, and crustaceans like you, Ali, who keep me going, who remind me that it's not all over and it's not all about me. I haven't had a new companion in… a very long time. I pushed everyone away." The Doctor sighed and I could see the hurt clouding in her eyes. "My people may have gone, but you have your people and everyone has their own people. And every one of them is precious."

Ali stepped forward and pressed her claw to the Doctor's cheek. She didn't say anything. The Doctor glanced at her claw and looked mildly uncomfortable. "A long time ago, in a body far, far away, I had something like that," she said, twisting her wrist in tiny circles. "Though not on that scale."

"You're very strange, Doctor," Ali teased. "Goodbye."

"This isn't a proper goodbye, Ali. I'll be seeing you."

"Will you?"

"I'm sure I will. When I need you most. When I need a mighty warrior."

Ali turned to me. "Then I suppose I'll see you again, too."

I nodded and spread my arms for a hug. "I hope so, Ali." Her arms wrapped around me and picked me off the floor, pushing me against her torso.

"You'll stay with her, right?" she asked after setting me down.

"I don't have anywhere else to go, so."

She grinned. "It sounds like you both need a companion, then."

* * *

"So, where in all of time and space do you feel like going?" the Doctor asked. I gazed up at the time rotor with one leg tucked underneath me, the jumpseat squeaking with every tiny jolt of turbulence.

"You're not going back for Rose?"

"Why would I? I've got you, haven't I?"

I frowned and scratched a spot behind my ear. "You said- to Ali, you said I was going to leave. What did you mean?"

"You don't know?" I shook my head. "Oh. Right. What did I say to you before you jumped here?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

The Doctor sat down on the jumpseat next to me, her hands stuffed in her jacket pockets again. "Before you met me, were you with a future incarnation or a past one?"

"Future."

"What did I say to you when you start to disappear?"

I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to recall the memories of what felt like another lifetime. I remembered the Doctor - Twelve - giving me my glasses and journal and phone, and I remembered the searing pain that had coursed through my body before I ended up hurtling through the vortex. "You said that I was fading," I said slowly. "I think. But you didn't explain to me what was happening. I-I don't really remember much."

"When you came to this universe" - I shifted uncomfortably - "something happened to you. I don't know what, but because of this thing you can travel through time. Without a time machine. Or a vortex manipulator, or any other appliance you can think of that lets you time travel. I don't know why you can do this or how, but I haven't been able to find a way of controlling it."

"Why would you want to control it?" I asked.

"Oh, no, nothing like that, love," she sighed. "See, you only stick around for a few days at a time. Sometimes it's just a day, sometimes it's two or three or even a week. Every time, it's different. But you show up, you stick around for a bit, and then you disappear."

"And it hurts like that every time?"

The Doctor shook her head. "No, the pain lessens over time. That or you get used to it. You never really told me."

I stared at one of the hundreds of tiny holes in the floor. I was silent for a long time. "Will it ever stop?"

"I don't know."

"So I'll just… keep doing this for the rest of my life?" The Doctor didn't answer. "Will I ever go home?"

My voice cracked and I turned away so the Doctor wouldn't see my tears. The jumpseat creaked as she stood up. She walked past me and picked up the journal that Ali had brushed aside earlier. "Here." That was her answer.

"Thanks."

The Doctor walked over to the console. "Do you want some shoes?" When I didn't reply, she started for the doorway on the opposite end of the room. "I'll go get you some shoes. And snacks. You're- you're probably hungry. I'll be right back."

I waited until I couldn't hear her footsteps before I started crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I found an ebook with the Ninth Doctor several months ago and I really loved the story, so I thought it would be fun to put it in this story. So here it is! The original book was written by Charlie Higson and it's very, very good.


End file.
